We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
As I had mentioned earlier, my family and I live in a small one-room house, which leaves us lacking the space and privacy we need. I have been working on adding another room, and I am hopeful that with the help of the transfers, I will be able to complete this project soon by using a portion of the funds to buy building materials. Once complete, I will be very happy, as I know that we all will have the privacy that we need. In addition to improving our living situation, I want to secure our future by building a substantial herd of livestock. I plan to use another portion of the transfers to purchase goats and chickens, with the hope that they will multiply and increase in number. This way, when we face financial challenges in the future, I will have the option to sell some of them to meet our needs.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Ensuring a future for my family where we experience less financial difficulty and my children can attend school without the worry of being sent home has always been a top priority for me. To work towards this goal, I used $20 from my transfers to buy a goat and $5 to purchase a chicken. I am hopeful that these animals will multiply, providing us with a reliable source of support in the future. With five children in school, I also spent $43 to pay their school fees, ensuring they can continue their education without interruption. Lastly, given the ongoing hunger crisis, I allocated the remaining $30 to buy food for my family, making sure we have enough to eat and do not go hungry. I am committed to building a better future for us all.
21st Payment
Transfer Amount
3470 KES ($27 USD)
access_time 5 months ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I currently live in a small one room house and I live with all my five children. In that one room, I have my bed and also my children's bed in the house. I want to add one room so that at least my children will have their room and live comfortably and enjoy their privacy. I plan to buy a metal sheet each month and so far I have bought three metal sheets and also buy building sticks so that by the time I have everything I can start building my house. I currently have two cocks and a hen and when they hatch I can sell them and buy more metal sheets and also pay for my children's school fees so that they may have an easy time in school and brighten their future with the knowledge they get from school.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I am a mother of five children and I took $60 and paid for my children school fees so that they won't be sent home and their studies won't be interrupted. I love educating my children so that in future they will be great people. One of my children fell ill and I spent $10 to treat him and now he has fully recovered, thanks to GiveDirectly.I took $20 and bought a metal sheet for my house construction project. I currently live in a small one room metal sheet house and I want to expand my house by adding another room so that it can be a two roomed house that will provide us with comfort. I also took $8 and purchased food for my family so that they can eat well and remain healthy. The remaining amount of $4 I kept in my savings for the future uncertainty.
18th Payment
Transfer Amount
3470 KES ($24 USD)
access_time 9 months ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I am currently at home taking care of my children. I want to invest more in chickens and sell them. Currently, I have two and will study more on how to take care of them and buy their medication so that they won't die. The more I buy, the more they will hatch, and I will sell them to acquire goats. This will help me in securing my children's future.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
As a mother of five children, upon receiving my transfers, my first priority was their education. I promptly allocated $15 to pay their school fees, ensuring their continued learning. I invested $9 in purchasing a metal sheet for the construction of my house, a step towards improving our living conditions. I previously owned four chickens, but they succumbed to disease, leaving me with only two. Determined to rebuild my poultry, I utilized the remaining $10 to purchase two more chickens, aiming to increase my flock and secure a sustainable source of income for my family's future.
13th Payment
Transfer Amount
3470 KES ($23 USD)
access_time 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I mentioned that I got an iron sheet in August. My aim is to expand my house. My 5 children, my husband and myself live in a one roomed house. Three beds are crammed into this little space, one bed for two of my older children, another bed for the other two and the last 3 year old sleeps with me and my husband. Seeing that my children are growing older I would wish that we could be able to have them in their own space but we cannot achieve this in this small one room, I hope to add another room to my already existing house to achieve this. I plan to achieve this using Givedirectly transfers.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I have been the sole breadwinner for my family since the month of April. My husband working in town fell ill and came back home to rest and recover but he is yet to fully recover and resume work. I help people fetch water for a living which makes so little I can only carry a 20L Jerry can at a time and it only pays about 20 cents. I do not make enough to meet all my families needs and hence receiving Givedirectly transfers has provided a lifeline for my family. I have afforded to pay school fees for the children as a result of the transfers in July I paid $10 to school for the four children, in August I paid $20 for all of them and $15 in September. I have as well been able to pay off debts accrued in shops to ensure my family accessed food, in July I paid $24 to the shopkeeper which reduced my debt, in September I cleared a pending debt of $10. I also bought an iron sheet at $9.5 in August.
10th Payment
Transfer Amount
3470 KES ($25 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My main goal is to educate my children to a higher level. I currently have four school-going children but the journey had never been that easy due to the financial challenges that my wife and I face, but despite all that, I had never given up. I, therefore, plan to be spending part of my monthly transfers on reducing the huge balance at school and also buying a goat every month that would help cater for their school fees in the future.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
The transfer that I received was of great help. I had five children whose school fees had piled and unfortunately, I did not have the money to help me reduce it. My husband and I had been struggling as much as we could, but so far we had never managed. Fortunately, GiveDirectly came to our rescue and with the most recent transfers, I managed to divide $10 to each one of them and I now feel relieved because they managed to carry on with their studies as the rest. Food on the other hand was also quite a challenge for us and I also managed to buy worth $10.70 and with the remaining amount of $14, I bought one goat for rearing and I believe that it would be of help in the future.
6th Payment
Transfer Amount
3470 KES ($27 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
The one thing I desire the most is to have my own business where I will be selling vegetables and fruits to my villagers. Most of my villagers move to a village called Mariakani just go get kales, fruits and vegetables.I would want to start my business before the end of March and it will cost me around $15 to start. I thank GiveDirectly for everything.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I currently do not have a steady job and my husband currently works for a printing company. My husband puts in a lot of effort to give our children the better life they deserve. The one thing we really want is to send our children to a good school and make sure they fulfill all of their goals. I took $14 as soon as I got my transfers and put it toward my four children school expenses. I spent some money on two chickens and I really hope they will hatch so that I can sell the chicks and make some money. I purchased groceries with the $10 that was left over because It is hard to survive and be healthy without food.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
3050 KES
access_time 2 years ago
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In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
In my view, GiveDirectly does well in enrolling the neediest from society. In addition, it promotes our well-being by giving direct cash transfers without any strings attached. Financial help is so enormous and has a varied impact on our lives. It also does well in doing follow-ups through which it can determine the impact the transfer has on the community. As a result, it enhances the relationship we have with GiveDirectly because it has boosted our confidence in what it does. There is nothing that GD does not do well.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent $10 from my recent transfer to pay school fees for my four school-going children; Happy, Emmanuel, Neema, and Peter. I am relieved that even though I did not clear their fee arrears, they attended classes successfully. They had been sent home for fee collection at the time. I also spent $10 on six packets of maize flour because we were out of food. We had depleted our supplies, and I was looking for some money to buy more food. The rest, I saved in a merry-go-round, hoping to get my share later and use it to build a new house.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
1200 KES ($10 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was actually attending a meeting that day and that is when I realized that the funds have been sent out, because a couple of people in the meeting were also apparently enrolled into the program and I heard whispers of them mentioning that givesirectly had sent out the money. Instantly I was overwhelmed with so much happiness especially sinceI had no idea if me and my family were going to be able to get a meal that evening.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
As I had mentioned prior, my children had actually been sent home before I received the money, so I was very happy to be able to pay their tuition fee and for them to be able to resume class just like other students.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Unfortunately two days prior to receiving the money, my kids had been sent back home due to the fact that I had failed to pay school tuition, but luckily the funds were sent out a couple of days later and I ended up using KES 600 to pay tuition fee for the four of them. As for what I was left remaining with which was KES 570 I decided to focus more ensuring my family and I had meal, so I ended up buying four packets of maize flour and a half kilogram of sugar since we barely had any food in the house.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I'm a mother of six married to a polygamous husband. Currently I'm living with my children in the village while my husband and his other wife are living and working in Mombasa. Four of my children are already schooling at primary level with only the last born yet to join. I have been mainly depending on him to send money for school fees for my children and also upkeep, but this always isn't enough as it's never more than 1500 KES per month. For that reason, I have also been burning and selling charcoal to supplement, and I have most of the time managed to raise 2000 KES monthly. But still I do find myself straining to afford the school fees of 8000 KES for four children per academic term. I therefore plan to spend my transfers to educate my children for as far as it will take them.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I have been struggling with the burden of school fees so much that when I hard of GiveDirectly's intentions to enroll us on this program, I felt happy. I already knew I have a way to solve most of my financial challenges like school fees for my children. They have been missing a lot classes whenever they're sent home to collect fees areas.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Lack of reliable sources of income is still my biggest challenge. We mainly depend on my husband's income from which he sends a fraction to me for upkeep and school fees. But most of the time he doesn't come thru or sends too little that we end up borrowing a lot from local shopkeepers.