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.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was around 5 pm as I was winding up doing my chores at our small farm when I received a notification indicating some money had been sent to my account from GiveDirectly. I was so excited that I ran back to my house to inform my husband and plan on how we would go withdraw the money from a mobile money agent in the next town
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference I have right now is that I am a business owner. I went to the nearest town, took up a store and a small house that has helped me run a maize selling business for five days where the remaining two days I run back home to see my children.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I used most of the transfer in adding another piece of land. I had initially bought some two units of land before and I now used Kes 40000 to get a third unit just next to the two units I had bought. This made me very happy because I am now a landowner and I will be able to build myself a good house and do some farming. I used the rest of the transfers to buy my family some clothes as we had not bought some in a while and some sacks of maize that enabled me to open up a small business in the next town
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I am a single mother of 2 boys. I got pregnant sometime in 2016. It was the most disgraceful moment in my life.,I dropped out of secondary school to nurse my baby boy. I resumed my studies after one year and cleared my form form in 2018.Life bit me hard ,I felt like I had led down my parents and became a bad example to my siblings. I have always been passionate about furthering my studies. It is against this backdrop that I intend to enrol in the nearby Chebunyo Technical institute to study a diploma course in Food and beverage. It will cost me approximately KES 70000 to clear the whole course.
What is the happiest part of your day?
My life has been that of destitution. I have always felt unwanted because I got expectant while at still at school and when I was still a teenager, something which is like a taboo in the society. Sometimes in December, my friends whom we schooled together came visiting. I was so elated, I felt valued. That was the highest moments for me.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
I fend for my children alone. Most of the time I do casual work of weeding other people farm to earn wages. These works are scarce especially during dry seasons. The meagre income of about KES 100 I get per day is never enough to buy food and pay school fees for my child who is in Pre primary level 2 nor even afford a descent clothings. It is a crime to be poor. Poverty is worse than anything!
