In the next one year I hope to accumulate enough money and be in a position to start a small business that will help me sustain the needs of my family. I still have two of my children pursuing their education at secondary level and this calls for much more resources that will help me pay their school fees. With the drought situation that we are currently experiencing, relying on agriculture alone may not yield much and hence the need to think of other investments that will help me raise enough money to pay school fees. I do not expect to get the capital to start this business accumulated at once but I hope to start saving from casual work and farming proceeds as I move towards achieving this.

In my opinion GiveDirectly does very well by giving support in form of cash. Looking at what I was able to achieve as a person really gives me some sense of pride and contentment. From the furniture that I bought to the tank that has completely changed our way of living. All these came with a lot of satisfaction to me and to everyone else that I know of. I do not see anything that GiveDirectly should improve or do better. Everything was done in a good manner.

When I received the second transfer, I used $300 to purchase a water tank and fix gathers in my house. I then used another $150 to pay school fees for my children and the remaining amount of money was used to buy furniture for our household. For a long time, we had been forced to travel for long distance in search of clean drinking water from river sources and when we received this transfer, we thought it was wise to purchase a water tank. I am extremely happy that we now have clean drinking water that we harvest whenever there are short or long rains. Gone are the days when we would have to travel for very long hours in search of water which would not always be safe. I am so grateful as well for the furniture that I was able to buy and which has made our home more comfortable than ever before. I had been unable to do all these owing to the fact that I am a single mother who relies on subsistence farming to earn a living for me and my two children. The long seasons of drought had even made the situation worse and the little that we got from farming would just be enough for consumption and nothing left to save.

After the great struggles that I had been going through, I was glad to finally receive the first transfer from GiveDirectly. It was 11:00 pm when I received a message that excited me a lot. I had to be up very early the next morning and the first thing I needed to address was the school fees payment for my children after an accumulated debt over the past terms. This had been so disturbing in the past few weeks since they could not be allowed to attend any class nor sit for their examinations. I am grateful that the transfer came right when I needed it the most and glad that I managed to fix all the arrears and the current term's fees after.

The joy of seeing my children settled in school without being sent home every other time to collect school fees is the biggest difference in my daily life since I received my first transfer. I had been so hard raising enough money to allow then such ample time but I am grateful that GiveDirectly came in with generous support that transformed a lot.

Clearance of school fees after receiving my first transfer could not come second after a devastating season seeing my children being sent home every week with the hope of getting some money before going back. I needed to pay a total of KES 28000 for the whole year and am now glad that they have ample time to study and catch up with other students. I also purchased a large plastic water tank that has stopped my frequent movement to and from the river as I have been doing previously. I can now collect the rainwater after fixing gutters that direct enough water from the roof to the tank that my family of four can use without having to worry at all. With the remaining amount, I used part of it on purchasing a dual purpose goat at KES 3000 and used the last bit of the remaining on buying foodstuff for the household.