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 ($442 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?
The new goal that I have now is building a better and more spacious house for my family. This is because we live in a small house that cannot host all my family comfortably. I will get some money through the small-scale farming that I do at home. I will sell some surplus produce to earn an income to purchase the materials.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
GiveDirectly does well in that they conduct their training and enrollment without any business. Most of the people who received the transfer spent it well. This has improved their standard of living. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent KES 40,000 on purchasing a piece of land. I am so grateful because I was able to claim back the land that I had sold before. I had sold part of my land to pay school fees for my son who is at the university. This was my biggest challenge since I did not have a stable source of income. Currently, I have purchased the land that I had sold and I am so happy. Were it not GiveDirectly this could have been so hard to achieve. The remaining amount of money I spent on food and household items that we were lacking at that particular time.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($484 USD)
access_time almost 3 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
Earlier that day I had heard people from my village saying that they had received money in their accounts. I was expecting mine to and I had grown restless. When it finally came I felt so happy and my heart was full of gratitude as well. I was in a nearby shopping center going about my daily duties and I took time to just reflect on what I needed to do with the money.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest differnce in my life is the return of a piece of land that I had earlier sold out. This piece of land is a huge asset to me and will allow me make investments like livestock keeping without straining that much. I felt so much relieved when I received the money from give dire vtky knowing very well that I was finally going to be able to get back the piece of land.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
The money came at a time when I needed money the most. Thee is a piece of land that I had earlier sold to a neighbor of mine to pay school fees for one of our children and he was selling it. I felt it was only right that I buy it back now that I had money from GiveDirectly. I used KS 40000 to buy the piece of land and used another KES 10000 to buy goats for keeping. Since we are only two members in our household and we are getting old, we can hardly do the odd casual jobs to make income. These goats were therefore going to help us incase there is an emergency. The amount that remeined was used to buy commodities for my child n who did not receive any transfer from GiveDirectly.
Enrolled
access_time almost 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means better and comfortable housing for my family. I pulled down the house that I live in previously because it was old, small and the roof had started to leak and built a bigger one that I have not yet completed. I plan to use KES 30000 to complete the house. I also plan on reviving a shop that I had shut down because I had no capital to maintain it with KES 40000 of the money, which will enable my family to earn income and sustain us. I will buy and stock enough foodstuff with some of the money because that is the major challenge that we are facing.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I am happy that for the last six months, we have had enough rainfall that enabled us to plant crops and harvest water because that is a challenge that we experience everyday. This in turn has affected our lives positively.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Inadequate food is the major challenge that I am currently facing. Our area does not sustain crop production due to the nature of the soil (clay) and insufficient rain. This combined with old age cannot enable us to produce for our family and we have to rely on our children to support us.
