I am hoping that we will have enough rains this year because I wanted to focus on farming so that I can harvest enough food for family consumption and for commercial consumption. Achieving this means that I will be able to pay school fees for my children.

What GiveDirectly does well is helping the poorest in the communities by giving them unconditional cash transfers. This has made it possible for them to empower themselves and uplift their living standards.

Both my husband and I are farmer and we have been depending on the same to earn living since we got married. For the last two years, the rains have not been reliable and we have only been able to harvest enough for family consumption and left with nothing to sell. Since all our children are in school, we have been forced to sell the food to pay school fees and therefore look for casual jobs in the neighborhood to get daily food. Water has also become scarce therefore at times, we have to walk for kilometers in search of it. When I received my second transfer, I spend $220 of it to buy 5000 litres of water so that I can store enough water once it rains, $100 to clear fees arrears for my son who is in high school and the balance to buy food and other household items.

I was very happy to receive such a huge amount of money for the first time in my life. I was with my daughter at home around 9:00 PM when I received a notification that excited us all night since we could not sleep. I informed other family members the following day and went ahead to collect the money from the nearby shopping center later in the evening.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the great happiness we have in the household after the revival and acceleration of the construction of a house that had been hanging on for many years. Fixing of new windows and replacing all the old woods on the walls have made the structure looked new again. I am grateful and eager to fully equip the house with new furniture once the floors have been furnished.

I had a construction that was on that still needed window frames and panes that cost 20k - I started the construction back in 2016 and had been hard to complete since I was struggling with the school fees for my children. Foodstuff and hh goods - 10k - for my family of seven. School fees for my son currently in his final year - 15k clothing for my children - remaining amount Since 2016, I have always been greeted by an incomplete construction of a house that I could not complete back then. The pressure from the school to clear my children school fees and the financial obligations that I needed to meet could not spare a coin for the construction. I had to move in to one of the rooms in 2018, modified the windows to minimize the intensity of the wind and raindrops that would sometimes be blown in. My dream seemed to have come true after I spent KES 20000 of the first transfer on fixing new metallic window frames and panes and replacing all the rotten woods on the walls. I am glad that I am only left with the interior furnishing of the floors before celebrating the grand opening of the new house. I also replaced the old kitchen wares and obtained enough foodstuff for my family of seven worth KES 10000. in addition I paid KES 15000 tuition fees for my son who is soon sitting for his grade 12 examinations, and spent the remaining amount ton clothing for my children.