Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
One afternoon, after I got home from the farm where I'd spent hours weeding vegetables, I took my phone out of my pocket and saw there was a message. Curiosity got the best of me, so I quickly opened it, and there it was — the GiveDirectly transfer! I felt an overwhelming surge of excitement and immediately rushed to tell my mother-in-law, who had also received the money. She was just as thrilled as I was. Later that evening, I called my husband to share the good news, and he was so happy that he promised to travel back soon. Together, we would buy iron sheets and start preparing to build our dream house.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
When I got the cash from GiveDirectly, the first thing I did was lease half an acre of land. We already had seedlings lying around, but we had no place to plant them, so the money came at the perfect time. Now that the vegetables are growing, it feels like we finally have a plan in motion. We’re excited because, with a good harvest, the farm will bring us some extra income, which we need. Before the transfer, we were mainly relying on my husband’s small charcoal business, but it wasn’t always enough. Now, with the farm, we have something to look forward to, a way to diversify our income.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
When we received the cash, we decided to use $52 to buy four iron sheets. Our house had been destroyed by floods, and since then, I’ve been staying with my co-wife. We needed to start rebuilding, even if it’s slowly, to have a place of our own again. The situation was tough, but we wanted to make progress, one step at a time. At the time, I was also expecting a baby, so I used $30 to buy a bag of maize. I wanted to make sure we had enough food when the baby arrived. Now, my little one is just a week old, and I’m grateful we planned. I also spent $30 on baby clothes, as I didn’t have anything prepared for the newborn, and those items were essential. We put another $50 towards leasing half an acre of land, where we’ve planted vegetables. The crops are growing well, and we’re hopeful that the harvest will help us sustain our family in the coming months. The remaining amount went toward purchasing other food supplies to ensure we had enough to eat and reduce the burden on the household. This money has given us a chance to rebuild and stabilize, even with the challenges we’ve faced.
