My husband and I collaboratively buy and sell brooms made from dried palm tree leaves for a living. Each broom earns us a profit of KES 20. This business is what has been helping us provide for our six children. On this day, a customer had placed an order but he had not yet made payments for the goods. So, we did not have the funds to buy food. I, therefore, used KES 2000 from my transfer to buy us some nourishment, and as for the remaining KES 1,000, I invested it in the business by buying more stocks. It is my desire to grow the enterprise for us to have more earnings to sufficiently support the family.

I feel the transfers were a good thing as my children are now able to go to school without the worry of school fee payments. I am also not so worried about making ends meet as I have put money back into my business which helps to sustain us. My children go to a nearby school. It takes 30 minutes for them to travel from home to school. All my school going children are in primary school and my last born is yet to start school. My oldest is in class 8 and I hope I will be able to help her clear school through this transfers. The one who is the follower is in class 5 while the other is in class 4 then class 3 and the youngest is in class 2. My youngest hasn't began school yet but I hope she also benefits and starts school using this transfers. I haven't seen something give directly has done that is not being done well. Hence I have no recommendations on the same.

My husband and I are subsistence farmers which we substitute with our small business of selling brooms as well as my husband engaging in casual labour to make ends meet. The drought has made it difficult to farm and now we are fully reliant on our broom selling business. We have 6 children of whom 5 are school going hence rely on us to make sure their school fees and food is provided. We had school fees arrears of 1000 shillings before receiving the first transfer and when we did receive the money we put 1500 into the education of our children which would have been put on hold had we not received the transfers. I was able to cover the balance of 500 shillings with the second transfer for this month of school fees. We have also been able to boost our broom selling business which Is now all we have left. On the first month we added 500 shillings into the business and the second month we added 1100. We usually sell twice in a month, one broom costs 120 shillings and on a good day we sell 40 brooms but on a not so good day we have a sale of 30 brooms. This is able to help us sustain our needs in the home. We are able to purchase books for our children when they need them which makes all the difference. We were able to have Christmas celebrations with my family as I purchased food for 1400 shillings from the second transfer. The first transfer also went into purchasing food to sustain the family which was of cost 900 shillings.

I was home making breakfast when my son came in and told me that I have received the money. I took the phone from him and checked to see if he was telling the truth even though I don't know how to read. I was so happy when he insisted it was true. I quickly left everything and went to withdraw the money so my children could go back to school. I am forever grateful to Give directly.

The biggest difference in my life is that my children can have a stable education. They have been coming home and the teachers also complaint due to the school fees balance. Knowing that my children will no longer be sent home as I will have an income to cater to it has relieved the burden. I also know that I would get to start my business thanks to this program which will help in the long term.

With this first transfer, I decided to focus on my children and my home. I paid school fees for my children even though I was not able to finish clearing the balance but small amounts to each would go a long way to appease the teachers from sending them back home. I was able to pay KES.1500. I also paid debt from the shopkeeper we would borrow food from. I was able to clear the KES.1000 we owed him. He had helped us during this tough time and it was only right to also consider him first. The remainder of KES.500 was used to buy food for the family. My life would not have been this easy without the help of Give directly.