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?
I am a farmer and mostly I depend on the sale of vegetables to support my family. I am used to small amounts of money which I earn from the sale of farm produce. When I got KES 55000 from GiveDirectly as my first transfer, I was filled with joy as I had never gotten such an amount. I felt so happy as I knew that the money would take me far in terms of changing my livelihood.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
GiveDirectly's financial aid enabled me to pay school fees for my children in good time. I had struggled to pay university fees for one of them and for the other two I was still looking for money to support them. When it came in handy with the need, I was so happy that it eased my burden. Now I don't struggle much like I would have been without these transfers.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I have two children in high school and I spent KES 20500 on paying for their school fees. I then spent KES 15000 on buying a heifer for rearing. The remaining amount, I spent on buying foodstuffs and some clothing for my children. I am glad that I did all these courtesy of GiveDirectly.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means an increase in the income that we earn as a household. I depend mostly on subsistence farming to earn a living but most recently it has been hard to grow most profitable crops due to unpredictable weather patterns. This made me think about alternative ways of getting an income and I have been thinking of raising dairy cows. With these transfers therefore we would like to spend KES. 80,000 to buy two dairy cows and we hope that from the sale of milk we shall be able to earn at least KES.10,000 monthly. This will be the highest amount of income we have ever earned as an household because at the moment through crop cultivation we get an average of KES. 4000 monthly.
What is the happiest part of your day?
My husband got employed by the government as a teacher last month and this brought me a lot of happiness because he had struggled so much to find the job.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The rising cost of living and the reducing income from farming is a big challenge to me lately. I think the quality of life we are living has drastically gone down and my fear is to come a point where I shall not be able to meet the family's basic needs. Our priority right now is to work on an income source that's reliable.
