My goal this year was to look for well paying projects since I am a mason. Achieving this means that I will be able to educate my children and provide for my family of four.

What GiveDirectly does well is enrolling people in the villages by themselves without relying on secondary data. This has made their processes more simpler, transparent and with no community conflict, keep up the good work.

Previously I had a muddy grass thatched kitchen that was not so strong and I feared that some day it will be blown away by strong wind. With the second transfer, I spend $300 to build a kitchen that is a bit more permanent. I spend the balance to buy a dairy cow that I had desired to own for quite a long time. Early next year, my cow will have given birth and I will be getting enough milk for the family and some for sell. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the financial support.

It was around 10 pm and I was at home with my family taking supper. Suddenly, I heard my phone ringing notifying me of a incoming new message. I stopped to check what it was all about and to my surprise, I found out that it was an SMS from my mobile money provider telling me that I had received KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I couldn't believe it, I immediately told my family who were by now wondering what was going on. They were so happy on hearing the wonderful news and we celebrated together. We even forgot that we were eating since the news took us by surprise.

The transfer has brought a very big difference in our lives as a family. We were able to buy the cow that we had always desired to have. We now have milk for our consumption and hence we no longer incur the cost of buying milk. We were also able to build another house. The one that we used to live in had grown old and it was about to collapse. We have not yet fully completed the construction but we plan to do so with the next transfer that we will get. We are so much thankful because our lives have changed for the better and we are no longer the way we used to be.

We spent the transfer money on various important things. We bought a cow at KES 15000. We also built another house at a cost of more than KES 30000, and with the remaining amount of around KES 8000, we used it in buying clothes and boosting the small business that we have. Buying a cow was our biggest priority since that is what we had always wanted to have for a long time. The cow is going to be of great help to us in the future and we will be able to get milk for our consumption. We usually buy milk on a daily basis. Although we had always desired to have a cow, we didn't have the money to buy one. We usually depend on casual jobs of farming to earn a living. We usually get paid KES 400 per day where we save up about KES 200 in the self-help groups that we have joined. With the remaining amount of money, we usually use it in buying food, that is maize and milk for the consumption of our family of five. The money from the self-help groups is what we usually use in paying school fees for our two children. With the cow that we bought, we no longer incur the cost of buying milk. When we bought the cow, it used to produce only a litre of milk but the milk production has increased with time. We are so much grateful to GiveDirectly for their help.