Our new goal is to buy one more cow to add to the one that we managed to buy with part of the transfer. Buying the cow would mean more milk than we can sell and get income. We also have a plan to expand our salon business so that we can attract more customers and in return get more income. The salon plus the casual jobs that I usually engage in is what we usually depend on to buy food, clothes for our children, the small essential household items, and pay school fees for my niece who lives with us.

GiveDirectly did well because they were not biased in the enrollment of people into their program. Everyone was equal before their eyes. I hence do not see anything wrong with how they were conducting their work. I urge them to continue with the good work.

We spent KES 30000 of our recent transfer on buying a cow. We didn't have a cow and hence we used to incur the cost of buying milk daily. We usually buy a liter and a half daily where a liter is KES 70. We also spent another KES 20000 on buying some machines for the salon business. We bought a salon hair dryer at KES 15000 and a blow dryer at KES 5000. My wife who is operating the business did not have the machines. She has been sending away customers that needed services that required the machines. I had some other money with me that I added to the transfer and hence with the remaining amount, I used it in doing finishing of the house that we had started building with the first transfer and we bought some household items such as chairs. We decided to build the house because we only had one house. We have been meaning to do the above but we did not have the large sum of money that is needed to do so. So when GiveDirectly came with the program to our village, we saw the opportunity to achieve our goals. We are thus grateful for this.

It was six in the morning and I had just woken up. As usual I reached out for my phone at the place where I had put it last night. I unlocked the screen of my phone and upon doing that, I saw that I had a new message. I opened it and to my surprise, it was an SMS saying that we had received the promised transfer of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I was filled with so much joy on seeing this that I immediately informed my wife who was busy with her household chores about it. She was so delighted too on hearing this that she left whatever she was doing and we celebrated together. I was curious to know what time the SMS got into my phone since I didn't hear my phone ringing at all. I checked the SMS and I learnt that it was sent at 11pm when we were already asleep. It was then that we confirmed from our neighbors that the transfers had been sent last night.

The transfer money brought a very big difference in our lives as a family. We were able to achieve our dream of building another house. We hence now have a nice and bigger space for us all to fit in. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for changing our lives for the better.

We spent most of the transfer money on building another house. We built a two-roomed house. We used to live in only one house that was small, the size of a kitchen house. We hence always wished to build another one which could act as a sleeping house and one which we could use to invite any guest visiting the household. Although we had always desired to build another house, we were not in a position to since we didn't have the money needed to do so. We are a young family and we are not yet financially stable. I am currently on a contract job with a microfinance company that deals with table banking. The money that I get paid is only enough to cater for basic needs of my family, that is, purchase of food and milk and payment of school fees for my children. So when GiveDirectly came with the program to our village, promising to give us a lump sum transfer, we saw the opportunity to achieve our goal. We are hence so much grateful to GiveDirectly. Apart from the house, we also bought some food and clothes with the remaining amount.