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?
Everyday I wake up early to prepare breakfast in order to start my land preparation for plants or sometimes weeding my garden. The time I received my transfers I was already at my garden weeding my vegetables with my daughter. I heard a text notification but because of my age I could not read but my daughter was there to assist me. She told me that I had received my transfer I was so happy since I had never such amount before.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
My biggest difference in my daily life is owning a dairy cow and sheep. Unlike before I know in some months I will be produce my own milk thus minimizing for me the cost of purchasing them. I had sold my previous dairy cows to raise school fees for my 5 children who were in secondary level.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Since I lost my lost my husband life has been difficult on my side in raising a family of 6. We had to sell the only resource we had in order to raise money for school fees and also to meet our basic needs. When I received my transfer I bought and dairy cow and sheep. I opted to invest on livestock more so dairy cow because I have been using a lot of money purchasing milk. The other remaining amount I bought sack of maize.
Enrolled
access_time over 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I am past my prime years and therefore there's need to take care of myself well. I need to stay healthy and active as well by engaging myself in economic activities that are less intensive. Receiving this money will mean that I will fence my farm and partition it into parddocks. My cattles are currently free range and by doing this, it will be easier to graze them. Additionally, I will keep the rest of the money to ensure that I have a regular means to buy anything that my body requires to stay healthy and fit.
What is the happiest part of your day?
After I am done with my usual household chores, I take my cattles to the nearby water pan to have water. Afterwards I look after them as I attend to my farm. My happiest part of the day is in the morning when I milk a sizeable amount of milk from my cattle. This will ensure I get a good amount of cash through the sale of milk.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
I am a small scale dairy farmer. I have ten of them and mostly on a free range grazing system. Sometimes they go to other people's farms to graze since my land is not faced. This has brought lots of conflict between myself and villagers. My age does not allow me to do labour intensive work like herding and so this has been my biggest challenge.
