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?
I was just relaxing near the watering hole like I always do while looking after some livestock when I got a message confirming that some money had been sent to my account and on further scrutiny realized that it is the amount that Givedirectly had promised to send us. I was so excited and immediately went to a nearby M-pesa agent to have it confirmed. I immediately knew that the plans of buying a dairy cow would finally materialize!
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
Culturally as a man, I need to be owning at least a cow. For a while now, the only cattle we had are those I consider my spouse's since I sold all my cattle to educate my children. I am now confident that I now have one Friesian dairy cow which I already served and hoping to be calving in a few months time. I glad that whenever I am grazing my cattle, I know that at least one of them is owned my me, which gives me a lot of joy!
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Having sold all my cattle to finance my children's education, I have always thought of buying at least a cow I can call my own. Therefore when I received the transfer, I bought a dairy cow for USD 440. I also bought a he goat for rearing since I only had some female goats and they could not reproduce as timely as required for lack of a he goat. I spent the rest to buy some building materials for a guest house and started building it, though currently incomplete. I want to have a comfortable place my guests can spend whenever they visit us.
Enrolled
access_time almost 2 years ago
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
I have plans of buying at least one dairy cow, a goat and start construction of some few rental houses here at home. These are things that I have always wanted but which I have been unable to accomplish
What is the happiest part of your day?
Recently some of my children who are working in Kisumu and Nairobi came visiting. What was so fascinating about their visit is them leaving me with some money. This money enabled me to achieve a lot that I otherwise would not have achieved. This visit was during Christmas and what this meant is that I was able to accomplish a lot as the year began.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The challenges that I am currently facing are all money related challenges. I have children who are working yes but they have great we responsibility of taking care of their families among other needs. This has often left me and my ageing wife helpless and yet we can do very little to raise income at our old age. There are projects that I have always wanted to accomplish and which requires money but getting this money has always proven to be tough for us. All these projects have had to stall until such a time that we will get some money.
