After spending the second transfer as per my plans, I developed another goal of keeping cows for milk. This idea came as a result of seeing how I have been spending a lot of money in buying milk for my children. If I get money, I will buy a cow for milk purposes. The milk will serve both for sale and family use. I am quite sure that I will get a good market from the locals since they rely on buying some milk for their families.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly is a life-changing organization that enables people to acquire things they desired but could not be able to have them because of poverty. Initially, sleeping hungry was not a strange thing to my family but since the first day I received the first transfer upto date, my family and I have not slept hungry. This could not be possible if it were not for GiveDirectly. I am very grateful for this organization.

Upon withdrawing the second transfer, I constructed a new house and gave the old one to my children. I opted to build the house because; my children and I were sleeping in the same house which deprived me of my privacy since some of them are grown up. I cannot recall how much I spend on the house because I do not know how to keep records. I also bought three goats for KES 9800.00. I opted for the goats because of the drought which affected our area and goats are more resistant to drought than cows. Thereafter, I used the remaining amount in buying some food for the family.

It was around 4am when I heard a message tone from my phone. Since I do not know how to read, I just ignored and continued with my sleep. When I woke up in the morning I remembered that I had there is a message that popped while I was asleep. I contacted my helper for confirmation and the message was a heart soothing one. What a good start of a day with a huge money information. The helper confirmed that I had received my transfer of KES 55000.00 from GiveDirectly. I was so happy inwardly. I even forced myself not to ululate because I didn’t people to know that I had received the money for my own personal reasons.

The biggest difference that seems to be small but to me it’s a miracle is that through GiveDirectly, I was able to pay KES 3000.00 school fees for my class eight child who is preparing himself for his national examination now, but he has been just sobbing at home for a while after being sent home due to school fees. This thing was not giving me peace of mind since I had no means of paying for him as I used to rely on selling firewood for a living. Currently I am a happy parent seeing my boy progressing well in school as he prepares himself for the final primary school examination.

When I withdrew the money I first bought a mattress for KES 4500.00. For some years I had been sleeping on a nice bed with poor bedding. Looking and the water scarcity problem that has been bothering not only me but also the whole community, I opted to buy a water tank of a capacity of 240 liters so that I could store some water to curb the problem that had been bothering my family and also bought 2 bales of maize floor for the family. The tank cost was KES 1800.00. I also paid KES 7000.00 school fees for my five primary school children who had some fee arrears something that was giving both the students and I sleepless nights because they were ever being sent home for school fees. Having settled those pressing issues, I bought 20 pieces of iron sheets and construction poles for KES 27000.00. the aim of buying these construction materials is to build a new spacious house so that the one we are in I give it to my children.