I am planning (have started) to build a new and bigger house for myself, my children and grandchildren too. Because the house that we have been living in is grass-thatched and when it rains, it rains in the house. It is not different from living in the open, which makes me very unhappy. With the new and bigger house, even my grandchildren will be sleeping comfortably in their rooms.

GiveDirectly, in my opinion, is doing everything right and we are grateful because it gives us the chance to choose what challenge to address. It enabled me to buy goats that are my future redemption. If I am faced with a challenge that needs money to be addressed, then I can easily sell one or two goats depending on the need. I am also able to buy myself some better and nice clothes unlike before when I used to have only worn-out clothes because I could barely afford new ones.

I spent my recent transfer mainly on building a new and bigger house that can shelter my children, grandchildren and myself. I bought 24 pieces of iron sheets for a cost of KES20000, timber and poles for KES6000 and KES7000 respectively. I could barely afford the cost of setting up a better house because, being a single parent, the least I could get from my charcoal burning business was mainly servicing the recurrent debts for daily food in the local kiosk. I also used the remaining cash to repay some loans and bought food. This makes me so happy and grateful because I was also able to get a few clothes for myself which before was not possible.

It was around 9 PM when I retired to bed then I heard a loud vibration from my phone. This was somehow strange to me because it was very rare for me to receive a message at such at that particular time. Therefore without wasting time, I asked my daughter to check who it could be. She later realized that it was an Mpesa message from Segovia Technology. Due to the excitement that I had, I couldn't afford to sleep till dawn I was just thinking about how my life would be thereafter.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I am now a proud owner of goats. I opted to keep goats because they reproduce very fast and require minimal supervision as compared to the other domestic animals. I am hoping very soon they will multiply and increase more. Currently, three of them have reproduced and this keeps me encouraged. I am certain that I will achieve a lot in life through this business since not so many families are doing it. Apart from that their demand is very high. I am hopeful that I will soon be able to provide basic needs such as food to my family. Paying school fees for my children will no longer be a struggle. This project has changed my perception of life in general, nowadays I can have big dreams and even plan for the future. I have become ambitious and optimistic in life. Like now am planning to later purchase a dairy cow after selling a few goats. Currently purchasing a dairy cow is not possible because they are normally very expensive and I cannot afford to buy one at the moment. Through the two projects, my life will never be the same again. I have been living a miserable life by always depending on odd jobs such as selling charcoal and the much I can earn from such jobs is KES 200 a day which was never enough to run my family. With these projects, I feel there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying livestock more so eight goats at KES 5000. I have been longing to own at least one but because of my low income this was not achievable Also, I cleared the school of KES 4000 and bought new uniforms for my grandchildren to at least replace the ones. I later gave my son KES 5000 to clear a dowry and I am glad that he is no longer harrassed by his in-laws like before. In addition, with the cash that had remained, I bought enough foodstuffs like maize flour and decent clothes, utensils, among others.