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?
It was in the morning when a message popped up on my phone. When I read it, I saw that GiveDirectly had sent me $200. This transformed my entire day! I was so happy and grateful for this support. My first thought was to go food shopping, as I wanted to make sure my family had enough to eat. The news brought me joy, and I felt a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my life since I started receiving cash from GiveDirectly has been in the areas of food security and sanitation. Before these transfers, my family was struggling to put enough food on the table, which caused us a lot of stress and worry. Now, we have enough to eat, and I no longer have to constantly worry about where our next meal will come from. Additionally, we did not have a toilet, which is a very important structure for maintaining high levels of hygiene. With the support from GiveDirectly, I was able to build a toilet for our family, greatly improving our living conditions and ensuring better health for everyone. This change has brought us comfort and peace of mind, and I am incredibly grateful for the support.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Upon receiving $200 from GiveDirectly, I decided to address my most pressing issues. I used $80 to buy food for my family, as it has become increasingly difficult to have enough to eat. Ensuring that we have sufficient food is a priority for me. I then spent $110 to build a toilet, which we desperately needed. Before this, we had no proper place to relieve ourselves, and I knew this was a significant health risk for my family. Now that we have a toilet, I feel relieved knowing that my family can maintain better hygiene and health.
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access_time 3 months ago
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
Receiving the cash transfers from Give Directly means so much to me and my family. This is because it will provide us with the necessary boost to change our lives and do things that we couldn't possibly do under our current state. For the first cash transfers we have planned to construct a toilet. We intend to use about KES 16000 of the first cash transfers on this. In addition to this, we intend to purchase food using KES 4000 from the remaining cash transfer. For the second cash transfer, we have planned to build one more house since the house we live in currently is a small single roomed house. We intend to use about KES 25000 of the cash transfer on this. For the remaining KES 2000 we have planned to purchase food and other household goods such as furniture and utensils. Since our farm land has been flooded by Lake Baringo, we intend to use the third cash transfer to lease land which we would use to plant maize and other crops. This will provide us with food and money from the sale of the farm produce.
What is the happiest part of your day?
My happiness in the last 6 months has come from the rains we are receiving. Our village is known for prolonged droughts. However the current rains have brought us joy since our livestock will have enough pasture.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The greatest challenge I'm facing currently is the lack of water since we don't have piped water in our village. This has made my life difficult because I'm forced to purchase water from our local center which costs KES 200 for five 20 litres of water. This has affected us financially since we depend on casual work and we sometimes lack money to purchase food and water.
