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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.
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Enrollment
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Transfers
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Completed
Newsfeed > Judy's Profile
Judy's family
Judy
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Subsistence farming
faceAge:
43
workCampaign
Kenya Large Transfer
There will be no further updates from this completed recipient.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($442 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I do not have any new goals now. I wish to complete the construction of the new house that I started using the previous transfer. I will also focus on paying the school fees for my children both in secondary school and the university.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build a better houses and to pay school fees for their children in various schools among other good activities. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well since the training and registration were done very well.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent KES 15,000 on purchasing a heifer. This is because I always buy milk daily and it is so costly for me. I will cut this cost when it reproduces in the near few months. My family will get enough milk and I will sell the extra milk to earn an income. I spend KES 25,000 on paying school fees for my two children in secondary school and one in the university. I am so happy because they are now studying well without being disturbed like before. I hope to get better performance this academic year. I spent KES 6,000 on purchasing sofa set seats which I did not have before. The remaining amount of money I spent on food and other household items. I am so grateful because GiveDirectly has changed our standard of living.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($485 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was almost 10 pm and we were not yet asleep since we were eagerly waiting for the transfer from GiveDirectly. We had heard that some people in the community had already received their transfers and hence we still had hopes that we were going to receive it too. We also feared that the money might come in and be taken away by the fraudsters while we are asleep. We thus kept on checking the phone for any new SMS. At around 10 pm is when we finally got the long-awaited message. We were so happy on seeing it that we lost our sleep as we were looking forward to the morning. My son who lives in the nearby village came in very early in the morning excited because he wanted to inquire if we had too received the good news as him. We confirmed to him that we got it last night and we celebrated together again for the blessing.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The transfer has brought a big difference in our lives as a family. This is because we have had some peace of mind having paid the tuition fees for our two children, one who is in college and the other in the university. I have hence had time to focus on my business which has grown since I no longer take out money from it to use in payment of the school fees for our children. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for the support.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We spent the transfer money on most of the things that we didn't have. We bought a calf at KES 16000, and two sofa seats which were costing KES 5600. Apart from that, we used KES 20000 in paying up the tuition fees for my two children, one who is in college, and the other who is in the university. We also used part of the money in improving the house that we live in, that is, we placed the ceiling board and glasses on the windows. We also bought a bag of maize at KES 3000 and with the remaining amount, we used it in buying clothes and a few utensils. Buying the calf and improving the house that we live in is what we had intended to do most with the transfer upon receiving it. The calf was going to be of great help to us in the future when it calves since we will be able to get milk for sale and also we can sell some of its offsprings and use the money in paying school fees for our children. We had built the house before but we had not managed to complete it very well since we lacked the money to do so. I usually do the business of buying and selling milk while my husband usually does that of buying and selling cows. The money that we usually make most of it usually goes to the payment of school fees for our four children, two who are in secondary school, and the other two in college and the university. We have hence so much grateful to GiveDirectly for enabling us to achieve what we never thought was going to be possible soon.
 
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
 
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I am so privileged to be part of this program and words cannot even express how exactly I feel right now. I have two students in secondary school right now and paying for their education has been an uphill task for me and my husband. We never went to school ourselves because our parents never valued education. This has now come back to haunt us because we cannot even secure employment or sustain any business skills. This is what we don't want our children to go through. We agreed with my husband to sell all the assets we have to have them in school. We will then use half of the transfers to clear their fee balances and the remaining half we will purchase a water tank because currently, I walk for 4 hours daily to get water for household use. This affects the time I would have dedicated to work in the farm for surplus income.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The kind of weather we have experienced in the last six months has given me a lot of happiness. There has been so much rainfall, unlike the past 7 years where the rains were so little. This means enhanced food security for our families. We hope this continues until we harvest what we have planted already for our consumption.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Our main challenge as a family is having to pay school fees amounting to KES. 60000 every year without a proper income. We used to depend on farming mostly but over the past few years the weather patterns have changed and we experience longer dry periods which cannot allow us to produce cash crops. We have a water challenge also because we have to fetch from the river which is not safe for drinking and it also consumes so much time walking to and fro.