GDLive Newsfeed
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.
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Newsfeed > Mercy's Profile
Mercy's family
Mercy
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Subsistence farming
faceAge:
24
workCampaign
UBI
Upcoming Stage
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Follow to be updated on Mercy's next check-in.
 
26th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($22 USD)
access_time 4 years ago
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Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
In the next four months, I have an additional goal to purchase a cow. We have been [participating with my husband in a merry-go-round and we are both expecting our turn comes April. This to us will be a good time to accumulate our money and use all in purchasing a good breed of a cow.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
Upon receiving the transfers from GiveDirectly I have been able to improve my faring. Within the last four months, all my farms have been fully under plantation. I have planted maize, beans, and also potatoes in the remaining part of the farm. I have been hoping to fully involve the whole farm to ensure that I produce enough food to feed my household and also surplus for sale.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
With the current plans we have in our household, we are really hopeful that in the next six months we will have purchase the cow and also our plantation will be ready for harvest. We are hoping that the weather will be favourable enough to enable our far produce to perform.
 
24th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time 4 years ago
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Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My new goal in life is to start a business of buying green tea leaves from farmers and supply them to the factory under my name. With this, I will be able to earn an income every month and bonuses every year. I will be using my transfers to achieve this.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have been able to fully utilize my farm throughout the year. This had never been possible before since I would at times lack money to use for farm preparation purposes and to buy farm inputs. I was able to plant beans on my farm after harvesting maize three months ago. I will sell some of it after harvesting them so that I can earn an income. I will then use this money to pay school fees for my children and invest more in farming.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months, my life will be different from how it is currently. I will have started buying green tea leaves from the farmers and deliver them to the factory under my name. This will be a way of investing my transfers and earn an income monthly and bonuses every year. Also, I am optimistic that my heifer will have calved. I bought this heifer using the savings that I was given in our merry go round group. As a result of this, I will be able to invest the money I would otherwise use in buying milk daily.
 
20th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($22 USD)
access_time over 4 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
Savings is one important value that I love. I have always wished to save whatever I make in a day but since what I make is barely enough to meet the daily needs, this becomes impossible. When I started receiving these transfers, my wish to save was rekindled. I now save some part of the transfer every month in a savings group that I am in. I am also glad that I now work more on my farm since I no longer do menial jobs as often as I used to. I am sure my farm will have improved productivity in the near future.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My new goal is to buy a dairy cow for rearing. Currently, I spent so much money on our daily purchase of milk. So my plan is to save and buy a dairy cow.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my daily is that I no longer overwork in order to have enough money to meet our household's basic needs. Since I wholly depended on casual labor, I had to really work hard in order to make enough. I am glad that GiveDirectly got my hand and I no longer need to necessary overwork. I am even able to work on my farm more because I am able to provide even without doing these menial jobs.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
My expectation in the near future is to buy a bigger piece of land. We currently live in a small piece that is too small fo our farming activities. This will allow me to improve my scope of farming. This will lead to an improved productivity which in the long run will improve our financial status from what we sell.
 
16th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time almost 5 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
After I started receiving these transfers, I have been able to work less and this has accorded me enough time to attend to my own farm at home. For a long time, I have been using most of my time to do casual jobs and having very little time to attend to my own farm and even my own children. The time that I now stay at home has enabled me to interact more with my children and give them enough motherly love something I realized was missing all that time. Attending to my farm has equally resulted in increased crop production and consequently a well fed family. I am leading a happier family than it was four months a go.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
In the next four months I have a plan of buying a plot. This, I plan to accomplish after receiving my merry go round contribution and selling some of the assets that I have been able to accumulate over the recent past. The idea of buying a plot came about because the current place where I am residing in is smaller and is to be shared among a group of people. Owning my own piece of land will enable me to have other income generating projects and even build my own permanent house without the fear of being evacuated in future. I am looking forward to doing this.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
Before I started receiving these transfers, I experienced a lot of challenges trying to balance between meeting my family's basic needs such as food and clothing for my children with payment of school fees. This was particularly hard for me because I entirely depend on casual labour to be able to raise income and the money that I get is barely enough to buy food. With the desire to give my children the best in terms of education, I often ended up working for long hours trying to get that extra income. This often left me exhausted and I still could not afford to raise enough. My children could often be sent home for school fees. Receiving this money has enabled me to keep my children in school all the time of the term and at the same time afford to provide the basic needs for them. This has been the biggest difference in my daily life over the last four months.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
The next six months shall be a milestone in my life. I expect that by this time I shall have bought the piece of land from the merry go round contributions and even practice advanced farming methods. I want to move away from the long term crops and practice horticultural farming. This shall definitely bring a difference in my life and I am looking forward to it.
 
12th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time 5 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
Four months ago, I used to lack most basic needs. At the moment the transfers got me covered. I now eat well and clothe well. we are really healthy together with my baby since we really eat well.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
The additional goals for my life for the next four months is to buy a cow. I joined the table banking group and in the next four months, my savings will have matured. I will then channel the saving to buy a dairy cow. As soon as it calves we will have enough milk for my family and for sale to earn extra income.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my life is that I was able to deliver my baby safely courtesy of the transfers. When I realized that I was pregnant I started saving the transfers. I joined a savings group through table banking and during the 9th months, the savings had matured. I bought everything that was required for the baby's delivery. My pregnancy was also complicated and I had to undergo surgery this was really expensive. The transfers got me covered. At the moment we are happy together with my baby. I am happy and we are forever grateful to GD.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months, I am planning to buy a dairy cow. I joined a table banking group where we all contribute about KES 40,000 monthly. In the next six months, my saving s will have matured and I will l use them to buy a dairy cow. I will then sell the milk and from the earnings, I get I will direct them towards meeting my family's daily needs. My family will be quite okay as far as milk consumption and basic needs is concerned.
 
5th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time almost 6 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
My farming have really transformed since we started receiving the GD transfers. Initially we have been using seeds right from our stores but currently we decided to obtain the certified maize and bean seed and we are eager to see the changes in our production too.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
For long our family have been living in only one house and I now feel it is a good time to build a new house for my children in our household.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
Taking a good breakfast every morning with my children with at least a bread, something which was so rare before we received the transfers is the biggest difference I have seen in my daily life.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
By the end of six months our household would have really changed since we now have a plan to purchase a heifer and also to construct a new house for my kids.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time 6 years ago
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Do you have any new goals that you didn't have before receiving the transfer?
Since I started receiving the transfer, I have thought of starting a tea leaves buying business.I have also started improving my farming mechanism where can now use certified seeds and fertilizers.
How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My life is currently in a better position since I can afford all my basic needs using returns of my casual work.This is because I can only use what I get to spend on my household needs unlike before when I had to forgo them for fee.I am living happily and able to save some money for other projects.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
I expect to be living a better life in the next six months since with the merry go round that am participating in and give directly transfers I will be in a position to buy a cow and build anew house for my family.
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 the transfers is that am now days in a position to provide for my family.I am able go prepare for my children's lunch on time since I do not do more of casual job unlike before.This has given me happiness in my family and humble time for school going children.
 
Enrolled
access_time over 6 years ago
 
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The biggest hardship I've faced in life is lack of money.I remember one time before i plant my own tea,i could go to someone farm to labour.There, i could pluck tea and for what i get from there was to be used for payment of school fee at the same time for food in the house. So this was really hard for me.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The happiest part of my day is when all the house core's are done well and everything completed
What are you planning to spend your transfer on?
Iam planning to spend my tranfer in buying tea leaves. In my area mostly i like plucking tea and for that, i will be happy to buy more so as to get more income.
What is the achievement you are proudest of?
The achievement iam proudest of is tea farming which helps me alot. When i pluck tea, i sell and get money which enables me pay my children school fees.