I have a long term goal of purchasing more land since the one that we are currently staying in is too small and an hindrance to farming and other activities. This will however remain to be a long term goal until such a time that I am done paying school fees for my children. I have one child already in their secondary school level of education and there are two others who are scheduled to join as from next year. My last born is in grade two but there are expenses that needs to be paid for her too. All these requires much money and yet I am a widow. I normally rely on my pottery business to raise money for school fees payment but the business is performing quite dismally as at now. I can raise as low as $3 per day contrary to before when I could raise as much as $15. This has made me struggle even to provide the most basic needs for my children. I have had to resort to borrowing from a savings plan that we started in our village in order to pay school fees for my children. My children have had to be sent home on some occasions because of lack of school fees. I am so much optimistic that the situation will change and there will be an end to this drought. This will make it possible for me to easily make ends meet and pay school fees for my children. I will also be in a position to pay school fees quite comfortably.

In my opinion GiveDirectly does very well by first of all conducting a training to through the Baraza. These trainings were very important in allowing us make important decisions on how to spend the money. I am particularly very impressed with he ow my village was able to put the money into good use. Seeing how the money helped others construct houses and how others were able to pay school fees is so fulfilling. There would not have been a better way that GiveDirectly would have conducted themselves than the way it did.

When I received the first transfer, I used part of it to buy a dairy cow. I had made a promise to myself that I will use part of the second transfer to build a house for my son. My son had just graduated to adulthood and it meant that he could no longer sleep under the same roof with is henceforth. I had purposed to build a house for him before but I was unsuccessful. This was so because the money that I had accumulated through merry g round that was meant for building a new house were diverted to buying a dairy cow since the one that we had died at around that time. I was forced to forego building this house in until a later date. I therefore used $230 of the second transfer to build my son a new house. The house has since been completed and my son has already moved into it. I feel very happy knowing that he now has the privacy that he did not have while he slept over with other young men in a house within our compound. He has also had enough time to concentrate in his studies and reduced cases of disciplinery issues. This make me so happy and I feel responsible as a parent. I used the amount that remained to buy food, clothes for my children and other basic household needs.

It was around 6:00 PM when I received a message from GiveDirectly. On checking it up, I was very excited to confirm that it was the first transfer. I shared the news with my children, who were equally happy knowing that all we had been planning was coming to pass.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the presence of a lactating cow that has consistently provided my family of five with at least a liter of milk every morning. After a hard spell of seven months of buying milk from the neighborhood, I am glad that I can now afford a smile every time I get to the cowshed to milk.

I am a single mother and providing for my four children had never been easy, especially after the only dairy cow that used to provide us enough milk succumbed to an unknown illness 7 months ago. All along, I had been meeting the daily cost of milk to ensure that my children get at least a cup of tea every morning. On receiving the first transfer, I spent KES 37000 on obtaining a lactating dairy cow that even though its calf was already weaned; still assures us of two liters every day. It has been my prayer to find a dairy cow this soon since I am headed to a more challenging period when my children joined their tertiary learning. With a cow in my field, it will be easier to provide my children with the milk proceeds as I raise school fees from other projects. I also had to purchase iron sheets that are now useful in putting up a new house for my son, who has been struggling to find a place to sleep in the neighborhood. I am happy that everything went as planned and hopeful that the second transfer will accomplish a lot in my household.