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.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months, my life will have changed in that I will have finished paying for my heifer. In addition to this, I will have started building a house for my family. Though I will have stopped receiving financial support from GiveDirectly, I will be doing some casual work to complete this work.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my daily life preceding the current transfer is that I am now a proud owner of a heifer. Even though I have not finished paying for it, I am glad since I know that very soon, the act of buying milk daily will come to an end. I bought it from my neighbor who allowed me to own it then I will be paying him on installments.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My main aim at the moment is to finish paying for the heifer I recently bought. I am planning to clear this debt so that it can allow me to concentrate on other things. After this, I will start buying some building materials in bits which I will later use to build a spacious house for my family. This will allow us to host visitors comfortably without worrying about anything.
How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
My life is currently different from how it was four months ago in that, apart from owning a heifer, I have been able to finish building a house for my son who has health issues and cannot do heavy work. I was able to achieve this using my transfers. I am now optimistic that he will soon be living independently with his wife.
16th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time over 5 years ago
attach_money
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
Among the plans that we have in our household is to see our son join college soon. We have made this decision to ensure that he doesn't stay at home for long before resuming his studies after completion of his secondary school studies. This is so possible since we have started saving for the same. My wife joined a merry-go-round group to boost our saving ability where she has been contributing 2000 KES to the group every month with the other 15 members. Her turn to receive the contribution will be in two months time and this to us will be the appropriate time for our son to pick his studies. We are now certain that in the next six months he will be back to school and the challenge we had in paying school fees won't be there anymore since we have put all necessary plans in place.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
It has been good living with all my children under a single roof until my elder son got married right after completion of his secondary school studies. This was both a blessing to the family but a challenge also since we had only one house to live in. We have been eating together every evening in our household and dispersing later when its time to sleep and my son has been sleeping in my neighbor's house with their son who already had a house. His marriage brought a serious need to construct a new house for them since they had to start their own life. GiveDirectly was an answer to that challenge. We all decided in our household that for a house to be constructed, everyone had to contribute some money from the transfers so that we can use in buying iron sheets. No one objected the idea and within two months we had enough money to buy the iron sheets. We thank God that we had enough woods and the only materials which we could source were the nails and then hiring someone to construct. A month never ended and the structure was compelete and ready to be used. We are now living differently in our houses and we are seeing progress in the new family lifestyle since they are both receiving the transfers.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My daughter being fresh in college and school fees payment is still a top priority, I don't really have a new goal that I would wish to initiate. I am only hoping that I would save slowly from my farming so that I put the savings on any plan I would see it ft in the future.
How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
In the last four months, our hopes of seeing our son and daughter completing their secondary school were dying but that God GiveDirectly came to our rescue. We had exhausted all the resources we had since we had to sell all the goats, chicken and the only cow we had in our household for their school fees. Life was really hard for all of us since we had a lot of pressure both for paying school fees and maintaining the needs of our household. give directly came in at a time which we really needed assistance and pushed us through it. We are now glad that our children have completed their studies and we are only left to think of when their college would start. We are now relieved and ready for the next step since we have been saving every month from GiveDirectly with the goal of using in future when our children resume their studies.
12th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($22 USD)
access_time over 5 years ago
attach_money
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
I expect my life to change in the next six months in that I will have saved some amount to money to rent a piece of land and do horticulture farming. After harvesting, I will be able to sell part of my produce to get an income to pay school fees for my children who are joining college and even to meet other basic needs for the family.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer is that I have built a house for my last born son. He used to sleep with my elder son in his house who is schooling in a nearby day secondary school. Most of the time, when my elder son is in the company of his younger brother, he could not complete his assignment in time and this was affecting his general performance in school. After building a house for the younger son, he has enough time to devote to his studies and this has led to an improvement in his overall performance at school. When the form four results were released early this year, his performance was good. He will join a tertiary college to pursue a course in electrical engineering
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My new goals for the next four months is that I will save some money to buy a heifer. This is because I am now incurring a high cost of buying milk for my family. After buying a cow I will be able to save some amount of money which I used to buy milk with to meet other basic needs for the family.
How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
My life currently different from how it was four months ago in that I no longer do hard jobs to get money to put food on the table. I now devote most of the time working on my farm unlike before where I could spend all day working in someone farm and get paid poolry.
6th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time 6 years ago
attach_money
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months I expect to have harvested potatoes which I had planted with the money which I got from GD. I will sell it and support my children who are in secondary school.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my life is to see my children in school full time. Before I got these transfer I was struggling get school fees and more often my children were being sent home. Now am so happy as we joint hands as a family to support them.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My new goal is t buy a cow in the near future, next month it will be my turn to receive the money from merry go round group which we started after getting the money from GD. I expect KES 10000 from it and will spent all to buy a cow for rearing as for long we have been buying milk for use.
How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
Currently my children are no longer being disturbed in school for fees and we get some money for use.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time over 6 years ago
attach_money
The recipient was not asked any questions as part of this follow up.
Enrolled
access_time over 6 years ago
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The biggest hardship that Iam facing is the school fees for my 2 children in secondary school.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The happiest part of the day is in the evening when I am going to bed after a tedious work.
What are you planning to spend your transfer on?
I plan to spend the transfer to construct a house.
What is the achievement you are proudest of?
The achievement that I am proud of is that I harvested a lot from the maize that I planted .