After spending all the transfer on the plans I had, starting a poultry farming project has been a new idea in my mind. I feel it is a simple project that can work alongside other projects in the homestead and will be beneficial in meeting smaller household bills and sometimes school requirements for my children. I have been making small savings and hopefully, it will be enough to start buying construction materials for the coop before bringing in the chicks.

Many people in the village transformed their living standards using the direct cash transfer they received from GiveDirectly. Giving us cash support was a good decision that made us address the immediate challenges we were facing in our households. Everyone welcomed and appreciated GiveDirectly on such an idea. Good words about the organization have never ceased to come out of the beneficiaries' mouths whenever we meet - a clear indication that GiveDirectly met people's expectations.

After passing on of my husband a year ago, I had been raising my two children alone. Even though the challenges have been many, I am grateful that I have been able to take them through some classes in school before GiveDirectly came in to support me. Providing their daily foodstuff has been hard, but the dairy cow has made it possible since I have been selling the surplus milk and buying foodstuff with the proceeds. On receiving the second transfer, I spent KES 28000 on buying another heifer, hoping to provide extra liters of milk in the future. I also spend KES 22000 on buying a 3000 liters plastic water tank that has completely changed the previous pattern of frequently visiting the river. I have gotten an uncomplicated time fetching rainwater, which is clean compared to the muddy ones from the public streams around. In addition, I spent the remaining amount on improving my farming practices after tilling and planting certified seeds on my pieces of land.

It was around 7 am and I was in the kitchen preparing tea for my family when I thought of checking my phone to see if I had any new messages or missed calls from last night. I saw that I had a new message and on opening it, I was surprised when I found out that I had received the KES 55000 that GiveDirectly had promised us. I was so happy on seeing this that my children noticed it. They asked me what was going on and I told them about it. They became so happy and they celebrated. I thanked God because I knew that the plans I had made were now going to be fulfilled.

The transfer has brought a very big difference in my life and that of my family. I managed to buy another more productive cow. The cow is going to help me in the future when it calves since I will be able to have enough milk that my children can consume and I can sell some and get income. I also managed to till my land and plant which I had left for a while since I didn't have the money to do so.

I spent KES 33000 of my recent transfer on buying a cow. I bought a cow with higher milk production because the one that I had was less productive. The milk that I use to get from it was little and not even enough for our consumption. I hence bought another one so that we can get more milk that is going to be enough for my children to consume and I can sell some when it calves. I have always wished to buy another cow but due to my financial status, I was not in a position to buy it. I usually depend on farming where I usually grow crops such as spring onions, and maize on small scale and I sell them. The money that I get is not much and it is usually only enough to sustain the basic needs of my family. I also spent another KES 3000 on preparing my piece of land for planting. I also bought two bags of maize seeds at KES 1000 and some bean seeds which costed me more than a thousand Kenyan shillings. I had managed to build another house before but I had not bought chairs. I hence spent another KES 5000 on buying them. With the remaining transfer amount, I spent it on buying clothes for my children. I am thus so much grateful to GiveDirectly for their big help.