I have been operating a shop within my village and the chances of expanding it were minimal because since I never managed to fully meet my customer's needs, thus reducing my profits. It had been discouraging watching my customers go for distance to get products that I could have provided with an exchange of money. I lost a lot and felt I had made a wrong mistake putting up my business. I had a wish to expand it but the low profits and overwhelming family needs made my dream unrealistic. When I received my first transfer, I resolved to inject KES10000 to increase the stock in my business. I bought an adequate stock of different products that will serve a large number of customers thus I am sure that my earnings will improve and increase again. My business is back to life again through the money I received from GiveDirectly. To me, this is the biggest difference in my daily life. I believe the extra profits will help me improve my family living standards and meet emergencies in the family as well as investing in other income-generating activities.

To me, GiveDirectly has done well in reducing poverty in our society. We have been able to provide for our families effectively, purchasing livestock as assets and most importantly, building better iron-roofed houses thus enjoying good shelter. I greatly appreciate GiveDirectly. I would wish to ask GD just to complete one location before going to another and try to reach everyone to avoid false hopes among the residents of a location.

When I received my first transfer, I spent part of it to buy some building materials that include iron sheets, nails, timber, doors, windows and also paid a carpenter to construct the house. I settled on this so that my children would be able to enjoy their privacy since we have been sleeping in the same room with them. Also, I used some amount on farming by buying a barbed wire to help me fence my piece of land where I had grown navier grass. As a way of investing this money, I injected KES10000 to my existing shop to boost the stock. I am happy that this has generated better profits for me. I used the remaining amount to pay school fees for my son who was joining form one.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk from my neighbors and it was so costly for me. I depend on the casual jobs in the village and the profits from the small retail shop that I operate at home. The amount of money that I get from all this was only enough for the basic needs of my family including paying school fees for my children. Sometimes when I did not have the money we could go without milk and this was very stressing because I have small children. Currently, I have bought a dairy cow and I no longer buy milk like I used to do before. My children are no longer missing milk. I have enough milk for my family and I sell the surplus to earn an income to meet other additional needs for the family. I am so happy because I no longer get stress up like before and this has made me devote much of my time to my business to generate more profits. GiveDirectly has changed our standard of living.

The moment when I received my money I felt so happy. I remember it was very early in the morning when I heard a message from my phone. When I check it, it was a message confirming that I have received a sum of 55000 KES from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy because I have never received such amount of money before, I knew I would be able to buy a dairy cow. My spouse and children also felt happy. We really celebrated that very morning.

I spent my first transfer to buy a dairy cow. I used to buy milk and it was so costly for me, I also added stock to my retail business shop, I also bought clothes, beddings and the rest of the money I used it to pay part of the school fees for my children.