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 4:30 pm and I was in a self-help group meeting. Suddenly, I heard my phone ringing and on checking it, I found out that I had a new SMS. I wondered what it was all about and hence I opened it to check the contents. I was so happy when I saw that I had received the promised KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. Soon after, two of my group members also received the same SMS and from the look on their faces, you could tell how happy they were too. We all celebrated together and we thanked God for the blessing.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference that the transfer has brought into our lives is that we have managed to build another house. This is a dream that we never thought we will be able to achieve soon due to lack of enough money. We thus now have a bigger house that is enough to accommodate guests visiting our household.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We spent KES 37000 of our recent transfer on building another bigger house. The house that we have been living in, is small and grass-thatched. There is hence no space for welcoming guests visiting our household. It has always been our wish to build one. We were just not able to fulfill this dream because we didn't have the large sum of money needed. I usually depend on casual jobs to earn a living while my husband is a motorcycle taxi driver. The money that we get most of it usually goes to the purchase of food and payment of merry-go-round contributions. The money that we receive from the merry-go-round group when it reaches our turn usually helps us in repaying the motorcycle since we took it on loan. We also usually use part of it in buying food and paying school fees for our children. Other than building a house, we also bought a bag of maize for our consumption and we used another KES 5000 on repaying the motorcycle loan. We usually pay KES 2500 every week for the loan. We also used KES 2000 of the transfer money on paying school fees for our children. With the remaining amount, we bought a few items that were missing in the house, that is, a table, 2 chairs, some blankets, and clothes for the children. We are hence so much grateful to GiveDirectly for their support.
Enrolled
access_time almost 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means owning a dairy cow. For the longest time, I have been buying milk around the village since I could not buy my cow. My three children have never got a chance to drink enough milk since the little I buy we use it for tea so that it can be enough for all family. I plan to buy a dairy cow worth KES 40,000 ready to milk so that my children will get nutrients as soon as possible. The remaining amount I will use to build a house, pay school fees and clothing for the family. By doing all this I will have a better life than ever before.
What is the happiest part of your day?
A month ago my husband was employed to ride a motorcycle. Since then things have changed because he comes home with something at the end of the day and my children will never sleep hungry again and that is the source of my happiness.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Food insecurity is the main challenge we are currently facing. For the last 5 years, the amount of rainfall in the area has been very low resulting in fewer harvests of foodstuffs such as maize. Previously, I used to harvest 8 bags of maize in my one-acre piece of land. For the last 2 years, I harvested one bag of maize meaning no food for the family, depending only on my husband to buy everything has been a huge task for him.
