My life is currently different than how it would have been if I never received the transfer because I have been able to build a house for my family. The kitchen we were previously using was in bad condition. It was always leaking during the rainy season and cooking our meals was difficult as one would get rained on. Also, my two sons would not have been able to join high school had it not have been for GiveDirectly. I depend on selling vegetables to raise school fees for my children and the income I usually get is always not enough to pay school fees and buy our daily needs.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well by giving us unconditional transfers that enabled us to transform our lives in different ways and I do not see anything that they did not do well.

When I received my second transfer, I bought a heifer as an asset for my family. When it reproduces, we will be getting milk for our consumption and sale. I will be using the income from the dairy project to meet our daily needs. Also, I paid school fees for my two sons who were joining form one and my daughter who was going to form four. I settled on this since I did not want my sons to repeat their previous classes. On the remaining amount, I bought one sack of maize for our consumption and other household necessities.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have been able to clear school fees for my daughter who is in secondary school. School fees arrears had piled up into huge amounts that I never thought she could be allowed to proceed into her fourth form. She has since joined her fourth form and will sit for her final examinations at the end of this year. I am optimistic that she will pass and bring change to our family. I honestly feel so happy and indebted to GiveDirectly for the timely support that they gave us.

I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. I heard my phone ring at almost dawn that day but since I could not read I waited until morning when my daughter read the message for me.We felt so happy as a family and even took sometime to pray. We already had plans on how we were going to spend the money but we took our time before we could withdraw the money and put it into good use as earlier planned.

I used part of my first transfer to build a house for my family and part of the remaining amount was used to pay school fees for my daughter. I also used part of the remaining amount to buy household furniture, bought clothes while the remaining amount was used to buy food for the family. We were staying in a small grass thatched house that was almost falling because it was so old. I have had the dream of building a bigger and better house but due to financial difficulties, I could not put up one until I received GiveDirectly funds. I feel so proud and happy that I have not only been able to put up this house, but also bought furniture to make the house more habitable and comfortable for my family.