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?
Everyone was very happy on receiving a confirmation message of the first transfer from GiveDirectly. I was in a village meeting with other neighbors at around 5:00 PM. The excitement was so high after receiving that the meeting had to be adjourned when everyone got impatient with the plans to collect the money from the immediate shopping center.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life is the complete construction that has provided an extra room for my elder son, who had no place to sleep. Walking through the nights in search of a place to sleep in the neighborhood is now a story of the past for him. I am grateful for the support and looking forward to a better transformation once I receive the second transfer.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
My elder son had been moving out to the neighbor's place where he could get a place to sleep every night since the space in our single house could not accommodate my whole family. On receiving the first transfer, it was my household's first call to construct a new house that would give him an extra room. I spent KES 30000 on buying building poles, frames, and some of the roofing materials, and also paid the labor charges that work on the construction of the new house. My son is happy that he no longer has to traverse the night that is sometimes marked by heavy downpours to get a place to sleep. I also obtained a sack of maize at KES 5200 that we had been using as a foodstuff with my family of five, cleared the school fees for my four primary school kids worth KES 4000, and spent the remaining amount on buying other household goods and new pairs of clothes for my household.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
We are delighted to receive this money because we have been wondering how to a sleeping house for my adolescent son. We find no privacy in living in one house with such a growing child. This money has come at the right time; we thank God and GiveDirectly.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Four weeks ago, one of our friends donated to us some maize seeds. This has been the key source of happiness in our family because we had spent all our savings on hiring some 0.5 acres of land. As such, we are hopeful for some food security in the future since we might harvest up to 180 kgs of maize.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
As a family, the main challenge that we are facing is the inadequacy of tillable land. The only 0.5 acres of land that we own is just enough to accommodate our homestead and our cow. So, we have no space to do crop farming, something that makes us strain to get food in our household by hiring land for crop farming. As a mother, I am constantly worried that I might fail to get land to hire or seeds to plant, hence, exposing my family to hunger.
