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 around 7 p.m when I was relaxing after the day's work. I got a message on my phone and upon checking it, I had received my first transfer from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy and shared the good news with my spouse who was with our two children. We all celebrated because we knew that the money would help us get what we needed. Together we planned for it and agreed on what would help us to improve our livelihood.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
Before GiveDirectly came into our lives, we couldn't afford to buy more livestock since we do not have a reliable source of income. We do depend on seasonal crop farming and the sale of milk. I am glad now that we have a new breed in our compound and soon we will have more milk for sale which when we sell we would earn income to help us meet our daily expenditure. Having this livestock is the biggest difference in my life.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We live near a forest and our main activity is rearing livestock since there is plenty of pasture in the forest. Before, we had only one cow which would give us milk for use at home and some for sale. When we got the transfers, we agreed to buy a cow and two goats. We bought a cow for KES 34000 and two goats for KES 20000. We opted to acquire livestock so that we can increase milk production from cows and in case of an emergency we would sell goats offsprings hence cushioning ourselves in cases of financial emergency.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money will really boost me economically. I am a farmer who keeps animal and practice crop production. I live in forest border and animal production is favorable. Adding my number of cattle has always been my dream. Currently I own 20 cows and my target is to own 30 cows by the end of this year. I believe the transfer will help me so much towards accomplishing this dream and also bringing my recently built house to completion.
What is the happiest part of your day?
What brought me joy and happiness is the harvest of 8 bags of maize in the month of March 2022. The harvests rekindled our hope since we had no harvests in the preciding 7 years. Crop diseases hit our region and it really challenged and affected our livelihoods. I am happy because we are now witnessing crop harvests.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Currently I have a heavy burden of taking care of my separated sister in-law and sick mother in-law. For the past 7 years there have been on harvests in our area. In the month of March 2022 I harvested 8 bags of maize which we exhausted barely after a month. A large sum of returns from maize sells was diverted to cater for my mother in-law's medical bill. I am now worried because we currently do not have enough food for both my household and my mother in-law's household.
