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.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($438 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
Since my son is in his final year of secondary school education, I believe that this will give me time for me to save money to purchase a parcel of land to add to the one that I own. I believe that with a bigger portion of land I can comfortably invest in farming.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
In my opinion, the support from GiveDirectly empowered and uplifted our lives financially, thus changing our living standards. They gave us unconditional support without any form of discrimination. I did not identify the areas that they needed to correct or things that were not done accordingly.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
The most immediate need that I had was for me to build a bigger and decent kitchen for my family. This is because the one that I had was small. Unfortunately, this was not possible before because I depend on making pots to earn an income where I make $2 per month on average, which ends up catering to my basic needs. I am married and my husband does casual jobs at the tea estates. Together, we have four children. Therefore, upon receiving, my second transfer, I used $200 on constructing the kitchen. Secondly, I paid the school fees arrears of $200 for my son who is in secondary school. Lastly, I used the remaining amount to buy foodstuffs and clothes. The support from GiveDirectly uplifted my living standards greatly, and I am forever grateful.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($470 USD)
access_time over 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was early in the morning at around 6 am when I was waking up when I heard my phone ringing notifying me of a new message. I decided to check it before I could head out to do my daily chores. I was surprised when I opened the SMS and I found out that we had received the KES 55000 that GiveDirectly had promised us. I was so happy on seeing this and I immediately told my husband about it. He was so happy too and we thanked God for it. Later on, is when we started hearing other people in the community happily talking about receiving the transfers. That day was certainly the happiest in our village.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The transfer has brought a big difference in our daily lives as a family. This is because having bought the cow, we no longer incur the cost of buying milk. We also managed to buy maize that can sustain us for quite some time. We thus no longer incur the cost of buying some. The daily budget cost has thus been reduced and we have managed to pay school fees for our children who are in primary. They are thus no longer being sent home due to arrears. Paying their school fees had become quite a challenge for us because most of the money that we make used to go to the purchase of food.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We spent KES 30000 of our recent transfer on buying a cow. We decided to buy the cow because we didn't have a source of milk for our consumption and hence we used to incur the cost of buying some every day. We use to buy a liter every day at KES 50 which was costly to us. We then spent KES 10000 on paying school fees for our one child who is in secondary school. We also bought a bag and a half of maize for our consumption at KES 8000. With the remaining transfer amount, we spent it on buying school uniforms for our three children who are in primary school and we bought some clothes for ourselves. We are thus grateful to GiveDirectly for their big support.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Being a mother of four, receiving this money means self-employment. I am a potter and would like to pursue a career in earthenware. This is only possible through starting up a business in the nearest town. I currently hand mold pots at home which I sell on Mondays only because I produce two per day. I earn KES 50 from each as there is an increase in supply. Diversifying it to more household items will increase sales and income also. I plan on using KES 40,000 to purchase a pottery machine and KES 25,000 as capital. This fascinates me because I will pursue my part-time hobby as a full-time job.
What is the happiest part of your day?
When my son was in his final year of primary education, I started saving up for his secondary education school fees. The KES 10,000 I had saved for a year was enough to send him to school last year. I did not strain financially, and it brought me happiness and ample time to save up for the next academic year's school fees.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Food insecurity is a challenge and most of my income goes into buying food for the family. Living with a family of six on such a small piece of land is strenuous because it is not enough to farm. I, therefore, rely on leasing land for farming which is expensive compared to if I owned a big parcel of land.
