Spending a lot of money on buying milk from the neighborhood for quite sometimes had been straining and even though it was becoming a norm, I would always struggle to meet the cost. It is amazing how things are currently after GiveDirectly came into our village, purchasing one lactating cow and a heifer changed the whole story. I have been enjoying consumption of milk from my own animals and even though it is not enough yet, I have great hope of producing more with time. This great change would not have been possible withput the transfer, I had no clear plan of obtaining a livestock but I am now grateful that apart from the livestock i bought, I also expanded the small kitchen I had.

Spending a lot of money on buying milk from the neighborhood for quite some time had been straining, and even though it was slowly becoming a norm, I would always struggle to meet the cost. It is amazing how things are currently turning out after GiveDirectly came into our village, purchasing one lactating cow and a heifer changed the whole story. I have been enjoying the consumption of milk from my own animals, and even though it is not enough yet, I have great hope of producing more with time. This great change would not have been possible without the transfer, I had no clear plan of raising such an amount to obtain livestock but I am now grateful that apart from the livestock I bought, I also expanded the small kitchen I had.

With a single house that has been acting as both a kitchen and a living room for my family, it has really been hard sharing space with the kids as they could not get ample time to read and even complete their school assignments every evening. On receiving the first second transfer, I managed to obtain 20 iron sheets at KES20000 after transporting them home. These enabled the extension on the side of the kitchen that provided a space of two rooms. I also spent the other KES20000 on obtaining a heifer in addition to the other cow that I had bought with the first transfer. I needed an additional breed as the only one I had could not sufficiently produce enough milk both for my domestic use with my mother whom I had been sharing some. I am also hoping to be selling some in the future as an extra source of income. Milk has always been on demand both within the village and even more in the nearby shopping center. Having set everything right with the heifer and the construction materials, I spent the remaining KES10000 on paying labor and obtained enough foodstuff that fed the labor force throughout the construction period.

Together with my family, we were glad when we finally received the transfer we had been waiting for. Everyone in the household had hope in receiving it as we had plans that were good for everyone. The most exciting goal we had was to obtain a lactating cow as we knew it will bring to an end the high cost of buying milk from the neighborhood.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the complete construction of a new house. I had been living with my family in a small house with a tattered roof that was always leaking due to the old iron sheets. The roofing materials I used were so old as they had been used before by a neighbor who after demolishing his old house, he sold me the iron sheets at a cheap cost. I am glad that I finally obtained new iron sheets and put up a new house which is soon coming to completion and will also mark the end of the old one as I will have to bring it down.

The first transfer I received gave me a great opportunity to address the need I had been pursuing for quite a long time in our household. I had been buying milk for such a long time which was so costly. This was a chance for us to obtain a cow, and we had to part with 30000KES for a good lactating breed that came with a calf. I also purchased 24 iron sheets and frames I used in the construction of a new house with the remaining amount. It is so humbling that we are now in the final stages of the construction a sign that we are soon going to move in.