The transfer money helped us a lot and we were able to accomplish most of the plans that we had laid down. We, however, have a new goal of buying land somewhere else away from home where we can settle and do farming. Our ancestral piece of land that we are living in currently is small and not enough to do economic activities such as farming or keeping livestock. We do not have money at the moment to achieve the mentioned goal but we are planning to save the little that we make towards the achievement of it.

I found the GiveDirectly staff so humble. They politely asked us questions when they were conducting the enrollment and registration. They were also not biased in the enrollment process since they enrolled everyone who was meeting the criteria irrespective of their financial backgrounds. I thus do not see anything that went wrong and hence I urge them to keep up the good work.

My husband and I have for the longest time desired to own a cow but we didn't have the money needed to buy one since we usually rely on casual jobs of farming to earn a living. These casual jobs do not pay a lot and hence most of the money usually goes to the purchase of food and essential household items such as sugar, soap, tea leaves, etc. So when we got our recent transfer from GiveDirectly, we decided to finally fulfill our dream and we bought a cow at KES 40000. The cow is still in its lactation period and hence we are glad because we now have milk for our consumption and hence we no longer incur the cost of buying some. One of our neighbors used to supply us with some and at times we could fail to get the milk when the demand is high. Our children would thus suffer during those days since they were sometimes forced to go to school without having taken tea since there was no milk to prepare some. Other than that, we also spent KES 1600 on hiring two points of an acre of land and tilling it. We plan to plant maize for subsistence use on it. We also paid school fees for our three children in primary school with KES 3000. With the remaining amount, we spent it on buying food for our consumption. We are so much grateful to GiveDirectly for their big support.

I still remember that precious day like yesterday. It was a Tuesday evening at around 4 p.m. while at home relaxing outside my house. That's when I heard an SMS alert on my phone and on checking I confirmed to have received KES 55,000 from GiveDirectly. I was very excited and relayed the good news to my husband who was equally excited because we weren't expecting it. We then decided to go and withdraw the money from the nearest mobile money agent. And that night we bought beef which made our dinner more special that night.

The biggest difference in my daily life is renting additional land hence more food for my family. Initially, we used to rent three-eight pieces of land at KES 1500 but when I received GiveDirectly transfers I managed to get one and a half acres of land at KES 5,500. I also intend to plant maize and cabbages which will be a source of food and income in the next few months.

Currently, we leave in a quarter of a piece of land. On one part is our homestead and on the other part is the dairy part which comprises of a dairy cow and nappier grass. Due to this we normally do casual labor to feed the family and pay school fees as well. When GiveDirectly transfers came, we decided to buy two young bulls at KES 12,000. This is because they grow fast and can later be sold for a piece of land. Secondly, I spent KES 10,000 on payment of school fees for my kids. This is because from the casual labor we would get only KES 400 a day which couldn't suffice to pay school fees. Thirdly, I rented an acre piece of land at KES 5500. I now intend to plant maize, cabbage, and nappier grass. This will ensure food security for my family and livestock at the same time. Last but not least, I spent KES 6600 on two bags of maize. This has helped sustain my family for a longer time unlike before when we used to buy food based on our daily income and sometimes would sleep hungry. The remaining KES 10,000 was used in the latest clothing fashion.