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.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
That beautiful evening, at around 5 pm I was at home preparing dinner when I received a message alert on my phone. On checking, it was KES 55,000 from GiveDirectly. I was very happy and withdrew the money the following day.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life availability of adequate funds to build my dream house within the shortest time possible. This is because I have already bought construction materials and the only remaining is the construction. Earlier on, since my son joined high school all hopes of building a house had been dashed but thanks to GiveDirectly transfers.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I am a mother of six; four boys and 2 girls. I am also a maize and sweet potatoes farmer. My husband works as a casual laborer in the neighborhood and gets up to KES 500 on a good day and KES100 on a bad day. I and my family have been living in one tiny house with leaking grass-thatched roofs built over 20 years ago. For the past three years, I desired to build a better house to accommodate my family but couldn't afford it due to the nature of casual labor we were doing.
Recently, when I received my first transfer I was very pleased because my heart desires had been granted. I, therefore, spent most of my recent transfer on the purchase of KES 20,000 on 25 Iron sheets, and KES 9,000 on the cutting of trees.
Furthermore, I spent KES 3,000 on payment of next term's school fees payment for my son in high school. I also KES 5,600 on two bags of maize which will sustain my family, especially during the period of constructing the house. Initially, we could only afford a kilo of maize each day as we got from casual labor.
The remainder I have saved for the construction of the house.
Enrolled
access_time almost 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means a better and spacious house for my family of 8. I live in a one- roomed grass thatched house which acts as the kitchen, living and sleeping area. It is very uncomfortable sleeping in the same room with my grown up children and also they have no enough space to do their evening studies or homework. This forces them to go to their cousins place when they need to study and I find it shameful. I plan on building a three- roomed iron roofed house with KES 30,000. My children will then sleep and study without straining also I will be fetching rain water saving me the agony of using unclean water from the river.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Good harvest of maize in last season is what has brought me happiness. I live in a semi-arid area and it hardly rains but for the past six months we have had consistent rainfall. I harvested two bags of maize in December from one acre piece of land that I had cultivated. This has reduced the expenditure we use on food helping us use the money we get to buy medicine for my sickly daughter.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
We have a sickly daughter whom I have been looking after for two months. I stopped going to work because she can not take care of herself. Since then, we have been relying on the income that my husband earns from casual jobs. He uses the KES 200 he gets daily to buy food for our family of 8 and medication for my ailing child. This leaves us with hardly enough money to fully pay school fees for our daughter in secondary school.
