GDLive Newsfeed
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.
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Enrollment
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Transfers
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Completed
Newsfeed > Joyce's Profile
Joyce's family
Joyce
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Small business
faceAge:
32
workCampaign
Kenya Large Transfer
There will be no further updates from this completed recipient.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53010 KES ($383 USD)
access_time 10 months ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My greatest wish as a parent is for my five children to complete their education successfully without disruption. I plan to clear their fees through maize sales and my husband's stock trading job. In addition, I also hope to begin a milk business in the village. I will borrow a loan from a friend as capital to initiate this business. As an opening stock, I plan on starting with 100 liters of milk, which I will purchase from the villagers at $0.40 a liter and then sell at $0.70 at the Bomet and Kapkwen markets. I will then use the profits to pay school fees for my children.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
What fascinates me about the transfers is that they are not loans but grants. Because of this, people do not fear to invest, for they are assured of their safety as there is no payback. If this was a loan, personally, I could have run away from it and still be in the same spot. I am glad the change in the community is visible as people have invested fully in their families, and morale has been boosted.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Education is the key to success, and every parent desires the best for his or her children. Being among them, I made this a success through the payment of $450 in school fees for my son and daughters in grades 9, 11, and 12, respectively. This could not be a success without the transfers because my family of seven depends on my husband, Richard, who is an active stock trader, to earn a living. Robert earns $50 a month, and all this pays for food for the household and partly for school fees. Sometimes my children are sent out of school due to arrears, but currently they are not. Alongside my husband's job, the family also cultivates maize on the 0.3 acres of land to harvest 3 bags of maize in a year, a produce that has been low, unlike the past 4 years when we could harvest 8 bags of maize in a year on the same land. This has been affected by the harsh climatic conditions and diseases.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($443 USD)
access_time 1 year ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I received a message alert on my phone, and when I checked it around 5:00 p.m., I discovered that I had received the first transfer from GiveDirectly that I was expecting. I was at home at the time with my children, who were overjoyed when they saw the message. I was overjoyed to receive my first transfer just a few days after enrolling. Many people in the village were surprised because it arrived earlier than expected. We had to wait another week in our household to plan, and when we were ready, we picked it up from a nearby shopping center on the second week.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The most noticeable difference in my daily life is the abundance of water, not only for my livestock but also for irrigating my land. The construction of a dam has been beneficial and will be useful during severe droughts. I'm not driving my animals to the community streams anymore, but rather finding enough water within the compound.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I was overjoyed to receive my first transfer just a few days after enrolling. Many people in the village were surprised because it arrived earlier than expected. We had to wait another week in our household to plan, and when we were ready, we picked it up from a nearby shopping center. Our top priority was to build a new house for my older son, who had just finished his eighth grade exams. He requires a private space where he can study at home and sleep at night now that he is an adult. I spent $200 on 1w3 iron sheets, building poles, nails, and labor charges. My son is now relieved that he has a room in which to sleep as well as a place to store all of his belongings while at home. We also built a dam, and despite having a large budget for it, we were lucky to use only $80 because the water filled it up before it was finished. It has since saved me money on buying water for my livestock and has also helped to irrigate my vegetable garden. In addition, my family of seven spent $10 on new pairs of clothes and food on Christmas Eve. I used some of the remaining funds to replace missing utensils and saved the rest to prepare my children for the start of school.
 
Enrolled
access_time over 1 year ago
 
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
This cash is a major boost for us, it is going to relieve us of the stress of paying school fees that has been a thorn in our flesh for a very long time. We intend to use $300 to clear next-term fees and part of it will go towards settling pending arrears. We are a happy lot since we are certain that our children will have ample time to study and excel in their studies. Whenever they are sent home for fees they become distracted and this has affected their performance a great deal. We will intend to use the rest of the money to build a separate house for my boy who is undergoing initiation sometime this month.
What is the happiest part of your day?
We experience a heavy rainfall last month which was really a boost for us. We depend on rainfed agriculture and when it is dry there are scarce pastures for our cow and so the production of milk had gone down. We have seen an improvement since the rain started. We are now getting 5 liters of milk per day unlike before when we were milking just 2 liters. My young children who loves taking milk had been affected a great deal, they were not happy because milk is their favourite meal yet it was not in plenty as before.Also, we were able to plant vegetables that we have been buying and mark you the cost of living had gone up and we could not afford at times. Life is now better and we are happy.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Talk about suffering, we have seen it all. Life is hard, it is a struggle, and we hope life will be better in the future. It is because of this that we have invested in our children's education to at least have a better future than ours. We have 2 children who are in Secondary School and the school fees of $300 per term for both of them is an uphill task for us raise since we are people of little means who are working hard to make both ends meet. They were sent home severally for fees this month and it gave us a lot of stress.