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
329680 RWF ($302 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
attach_money
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
The cow is what I spent most of my money on. I bought a young calf for 200,000 rwf. We have unfertile land here in Kinyana and it serves nothing to cultivate without manure. This cow really came in handy.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
My life was hard before receiving my first GD transfer. We struggled finding something to eat and everyday was a routine of us trying to survive. All thanks to GD, I now have my own cow for manure and hopefully some milk later, my children went back to school and I was able to buy food.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was walking from home heading to the market when I first found out I had received my transfer. I was very content and immediately joined me at the market place where he helped me look for an agent and count the withdrawn money. I was so happy and I always pray for everyone at GD. It is very hard to grow crops on our land without manure but I was able to buy a cow, put my kids back to school and bought some food all thanks to GD.
Enrolled
access_time over 1 year ago
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The first challenge we are currently facing is not having enough land to cultivate, we have a small land which can't produce enough thus we have to work for others in order to survive and we have to rent a land to produce what to eat. Another challenge we have is that me and my husband Fabien had both stomach surgery which make us weak sometimes and we can't be able to work for our family and get money to sustain our family and this sometimes makes it hard for us to get school fees for our children and there are cases where we had to pay for some of them and others had to stay at home.
Our house is very small and not adequate for my family size , we don't have beds for our 5 children and they have to sleep on the floor which is uncomfortable and it rains inside our house because the roof is not adaquate , when it rain heavily we can't be able to sleep we have to wake up and move on one side and wait for the rain to stop.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Ending the year healthy and alive was it’s self a miracle for us because we didn't have a good farming season, we had a sunny season for almost 3 months without any drop of rain but when by the end of the year the season changed and it was raining we were able to harvest and get what to eat and this was unexpected for us.
We have recently been able to pay for school fees for our 4 children which was a very happy accomplishment for us and our daughter Antoinette was Baptisted 5 months ago and this brought joy to our family as we have been able to celebrate this new step with our friends and family.
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
In the first installment i plan to use $120 on house needs; i want to pay for medical insurance for $21 , buy beds , cooking pots, and clothes for our children. The rest $200 we plan to buy livestock, we want to buy a pig for $150 and a goat for $50 to give birth and sell in the future.
The second installment we plan to buy a land for $400 and renovate our house by buying some furniture and the balance we will use it buying food for our family.
Receiving this money means coming out of poverty for us and reaching to our development and this is a push up for us , we will have a peace of mind not struggling to work for others and we will be having a good standard of living.
