I am hoping to start a business more so a grocery and save the cash so that I can be able to pay fees for my children. Being illiterate, my wish is to see all my children get better education which I believe will eradicate the poverty life that has stricken our household. Therefore I expect that I will acquire the capital as soon as possible and start the business.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well, especially on the idea of offering us cash transfers. No one in my village expected to receive such a huge amount of money which is nonrefundable. Additionally, we were given the freedom to choose what to purchase according to our heart desires. Therefore, I do not see anything that needs to be changed or introduced in their operations.

I spent $200 of my second transfer on paying fees for my son who recently joined high school. It has been a tough time for me because I solely depended on the charcoal business which was not that lucrative. Additionally being a widow of three, it has never been easy to put food on the table and pay fees on time. The fact that I have now been able to clear the fees for the whole academic year has brought so much joy into my life. Additionally, a solar panel worth $300. Back in the day, I was using candles and was sometimes forced to stay in the dark since I could not afford to purchase them at my own cost. This affected my children's performance because they could barely study at night. This has been frustrating me as a parent for so long and I never thought that it would come to an end. We now feel relieved as a family courtesy of GiveDirectly. With the remaining amount of money, I have been buying food for my family which took us almost one week.

It was at 8 am when I saw a message on my phone. Although I do not know how to read, I was trained on how to interpret money messages and I did it myself. Since the figure was huge, I consulted my helper for clarification and he confirmed the same. My heart was engulfed in happiness for receiving such an amount of money that I had never received at once.

What I can vividly testify of about my life before GiveDirectly came is that, I had no proper shelter but now I have. I used to sleep on the floor, using boxes and sacks. It was painful because sleeping with your children on the floor was not only shameful but also made the children lack confidence when they join their friends. As of now, as a family, we are sleeping on nice beds covered by good mattresses. This could not be possible anytime soon if it were not for GiveDirectly.

Upon withdrawing the money, I first paid a debt of KES 5700.00 to a local lending institution when I had borrowed. Thereafter, I bought a bed and a mattress since I was using sacks and boxes on the floor. I also completed my son’s house which he had started but stuck due to lack of materials which required money he did not have. Since it was a drought season, I opted to use the remaining amount in buying some food for my family.