We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
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Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
354200 MWK ($346 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
check
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I felt so excited the moment when I received my cash transfer since It was like a dream..My whole life I have never had such a huge sum of money so I felt blessed and grateful.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life since I started receiving these payments is that in the past I used to have too many conflicts with my wife since I could spent at least 2 to 3 months in another district in search of greener pastures..I usually went to Mangochi district where I could find piece works and only visited my wife a few times, this always caused problems as most of the times I was away and my wife felt neglected..But now with the cash I am able to spend much time with my family and there are no more conflicts amongst the 2 of us..Also, I am able to find piece works in my village such as helping in building houses.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spend my most recent transfer to procure 2 bags of fertilizer at $70 each..I will use the fertilizer on my 1 acre piece of land by cultivating enough maize so that I can be able to produce higher yields.
I also bought 5 bags of maize at $20 per bag..I feel these bags of maize will take us through march next year as my family is very small.
I saved some of the cash which I think I will use in procuring livestock such as goats and chickens as well as kitchen utensils.
Enrolled
access_time 2 years ago
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
Well as a household we'll divide it in such a way that some funds will be allocated to buy 3 bags of fertilizer for we feel like that number would be ideal to help us have a bumper harvest next season. The other portion would be used to buy 7 goats. We would buy 7 goats because we plan on breeding them for business and that number is just fine considering that of those, some might get sick and die so the survival rate might still be good even if 2 or 3 die.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I would say I was happy 3 months ago when I sold my soya at 30,000. I got the cash and managed to buy my household food and yes that was quiet a relief since I was able to provide for my family for a month or so within that period. "And oh my bad, how could I forget" having turned and looked at his spouse holding a baby "We have been recently blessed with our first born child last month, this has been a euphoric moment in our family within the last 6 months".
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Financial constraints and shortage of food are the major challenges we are currently facing as a household. We are literally living on "give us our today's bread" for survival. The high cost of living and expensive nature of agricultural products like fertilizer further adds on our misery. Since we are unable to manage to buy fertilizer our yearly yields are usually low and this brings about hunger in our household.
