Right now, I'm sleeping on a bed made of sisal twine, which is very uncomfortable. I've started experiencing excruciating back pain, and as a result, my health has gotten worse. My top priority for the year is to purchase a brand-new wooden bed and a cozy mattress to sleep on. This will solve all of my issues and improve my health.

Given my age, my eldest son is primarily responsible for taking care of me. My son and I combined the money from the transfers to launch a small kiosk enterprise to sell maize flour. A healthy profit margin from this business has greatly aided my ability to meet my needs. I used all of my February transfers, along with some of my own savings, to buy two bales of maize flour that each contain 12 pieces of 2 kg of maize flour. This increased the amount of maize flour I had in stock. Business is booming, and the high demand for flour is an additional benefit for turning a healthy profit. I'm appreciative of how the money is enabling me to support myself independently of other people.

After receiving the transfers I decided to start a small business so that it could help me sustain myself. Therefore I used KES 2,000 of the donation that I had received and started a selling sardines at the comfort of my home due to my old age. I was left with about KES 1,000 which I ended up using on buying five packets of maize flour because nutrition was a challenge.

We are in abject poverty and the financial support was what we needed most. GiveDirectly gives us the transfers unconditionally in order to improve on lives. Thus, in my opinion, GiveDirectly has so far done well in helping us with the transfers and rescuing us from the poverty we are in. We are now able to take care of our basic needs such as buying food and paying fees for our children. These were the biggest challenges that GiveDirectly has helped us to overcome.

I am glad that through the transfer, I purchased livestock which I could not afford to buy at my own cost. Currently, I have three chickens and a goat which I am keeping on my homestead. I am aged and cannot do any manual work thus having livestock is my financial security. Once they reproduce and increase in number, I can readily sell the offspring in case a financial need crops up. The transfer also enabled me to buy enough food for my family. I have been relying on my son's support but he is currently sick and indisposed. He is unable to work anymore and has a big family to take care of. I am happy that I was able to assist him in providing for the family.

I was sitting outside my house in the morning hours. My neighbors passed by on their way to the shop, being thrilled. After having a brief conversation with them, they told me they had received their transfer and were going to withdraw the money. At that moment I became very anxious, and I called my grandson who checked my phone. He read the text message and informed me I had received the money, too. I was thrilled, and I murmured a small prayer to thank God.

The money has brought a big difference to my life. I now own livestock, which I never had. I am happy that soon I will have lots of them once they multiply. It gives me a sense of joy when I know I will one day become financially stable through the chicken I bought using the transfer.  

Having received my first transfer of KSH 1200, I was very excited and I spent the money on something. I would always make me remember the excitement of receiving my first transfer. After a few days of thing through, I bought some chicken with the money. I bought three chicken at KSH 300 each. In my reasoning, the chicken would multiply after a period and when I sell some, I will use the money to buy another type of poultry or livestock. Waking up to see the chicken grow motivates me to spend the money wisely and I am optimistic that I will make good money from rearing the chicken. Besides buying the chicken, I spent the remaining KSH 300 to buy food for my family, as we had nothing to eat on that day.