I was very excited to receive this money and I was very happy because my grass thatched house was almost falling down and had a leaking roof. However, when I received the cash transfer, I was overjoyed because this was the only chance I had to construct a good house. I am very happy now to have a good house like others. Thanks to GiveDirectly for the support they gave to put up a good shelter for my family.

In my life holding huge money in my hands was so strange. I have never handled more than KES 10000 in my life before and this was the first time it was happening to me. I had mixed feelings, I was happy and at the same time felt confused, I consider myself lucky and considered my problems over. GiveDirectly really had the intention of liberating us from the poverty which had torture us for long.

I spent part of the transfer I received from GiveDirectly in paying school fees for my children. I am at peace for they will no longer be sent home for fees. I also spent some amount to purchase some clothes for myself and members of my family. I am happy that we now have good clothes. I had no mattress to sleep on and that I use to sleep on a hide and old clothes as a mattress and this made my nights very long and uncomfortable. I could not sleep well as most of the time I would have back pains. I was able to buy a new mattress which has made my life much better because I sleep much comfortable. Lastly, I spent the remaining amount to buy a heifer to add to my stock. I believe in the near future it will give birth and will produce milk which I will sell some to take care of family needs.

Living in a one-roomed house with a big family is not easy. We had no privacy, we could dress in turns at least to offer ourselves just a little privacy. This was so embarrassing. My dream for having a spacious partitioned house came to reality after receiving money from GiveDirectly. I managed to build a modern, two-roomed spacious house. What warms my heart every day is the privacy we can now enjoy and that fact that I also have a good house of my dreams makes me feel so happy. My children's life is nolonger at risk given that I sleep with them under the same roof.

It was in the morning at 7.30am when I was taking breakfast with my family and I heard a text message notification from my phone. I told my son to check it, and he told that I had received 55000KES from GiveDirectly. I felt very happy because I have neer received that kind of money in my life. I want to thank GiveDirectly for this financial support.

I spent some part of my first transfer to purchase iron sheets and other building materials. Before, I had a grass thatched house which was in bad condition. In this era, getting grass is not easy so my house was already leaking given that I could not get enough grass to cover the roof and the house was too squeezed too to comfortably accommodate my growing family. I have been dreaming of building a bigger and better house. Previously my children used to sleep in my relative's house. This always got me worried as there are a lot of insecurities in the night and anything could happen to them. These are what made me build a spacious modern house. I also purchased maize using some part of the transfer. The past few years our maize production has not been doing well because there was an outbreak of a certain disease and this affected the plantation so much that we could hardly harvest anything. Lastly, I spent the rest on paying school fees for my children as I managed to pay their fees on time and some to pipe water into my compound from the nearest tank in my community so that I do not have to walk long distances to draw water like before.