I am hoping to have a larger farm for subsistence farming like bean, maize, vegetables and tomatoes. I have been farming for the past ten years to earn a living. Mostly I hire a piece of land due to insufficient funds. I am planning to expand this as I have so many responsibilities like providing for my children basic needs like food, clothing and education.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps in planning as one is in a position to do something huge as compared to when the transfers are given in small instalments. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. To avoid household conflict, what needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration to the programs.

I was living in a small grass-thatched house and it could not fit all my family members. During the rainy season it could leak and this destroyed most of my valuable items. The boys used to sleep in my neighbour's house and this was so inconvenient as they could go so early due to insecurity in my community as most homes do not have access to electricity. I used the whole of the transfers of kshs 51,000 to build a spacious decent house for my family. I am so grateful to GiveDirectly for the transfers.

Words cannot explain the immense joy that I felt when I received cash from GiveDirectly. I can vividly recall that It was early in the morning when we were all seated in the sitting room taking breakfast. Suddenly, I heard my phone ringing, Upon checking I realised that I had received money from GiveDirectly. This was the happiest day in my life because I knew that I Would be able to accomplish my goals right on time. I then broke the good news to my family. Finally, we all sat down as a family and planned on how we would spend our transfer.

The biggest difference in my daily life today is that I was able to complete my house which had been left halfway for many years due to financial constraints. In addition to that, I was able to top up school fees for my children meaning that they can comfortably study at school without any interference whatsoever. I am grateful for the support that lifted my living standards amazingly in a way that I could not imagine more so in a short span.

I am a Boda Boda taxi driver, married and blessed with five children. Upon the receipt of my first transfer, I opted to pay school fees for my children. Therefore I used KES 10,000 on school fees, I then used the remaining amount of KES 45,000 on plastering my house which had been left halfway due to financial constraints as a result of school fees responsibilities. I am relieved and happy that I was able to accomplish this dream in a short period.