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Jumwa

Country:

kenya

Occupation:

Small business

Age:

Campaign

Kenya Large Transfer

Upcoming Stage

Next Payment

Follow to be updated on Jumwa's next check-in.

Initial Payment

Transfer Amount

55000 KES ($401 USD)

18 days ago

Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?

I was sitting under a shade tree alongside my house when the message arrived, and when I saw it, I was delighted. My house was in terrible shape; it would fall apart while we were asleep, and now the main worry was that the rainy season was here and I had no clue what I would have done.

Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.

With the iron sheet roofing, I can collect rainwater and use it for every domestic use, saving us from walking long distances to fetch water. Not forgetting that we are now having a better house compared to what we had before, which was not even fit to be called a home.

What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?

The only thing I could consider using the transfers on is building another house, which took me $53 to complete. I am grateful that I did this because the rains would have swept away our initial home and we would be homeless by now. I also bought food with $2, which has been difficult for the past few months. We are now delighted and comfortable as a family.

Enrolled

3 months ago

What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?

A new house and venturing into livestock keeping are top of my priorities once I receive this money. At the moment, I live in a grass-thatched house together with my family of 5. This house is small and it can not accommodate us. I have desired to construct a decent house but due to financial constraints, this has never been possible. Receiving this money means realizing my dreams. I plan to construct a 2-roomed iron-roofed house to relieve me from the expenses of changing the grass roof. In total, this will cost me utmost $600 of my transfers. The remaining amount will help me to buy 10 goats to act as my long-term investment project. This will along in supporting my children's education in the future. What a happy life!

What is the happiest part of your day?

As a mother, having to watch my child stay out of school is so painful. This was my situation in January when my son who is in secondary school stayed home for 2 weeks. I had no idea how I would clear his fee arrears until I was lucky to sell some charcoal that I had in my store. From this sale, I was able to raise $30 which enabled him to resume classes even though I did not clear the entire balance. Seeing him go back to class brought me unexplainable joy.

What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?

Having to support my children single-handedly yet I have a spouse is quite challenging. Meeting our daily needs, requires me to engage in vending local brew and charcoal burning. Despite all the hard work, my children often miss school because I fail to pay fees on time. This has greatly affected their performance and it makes me worry of their future.