I am hoping that this year I will invest in buying a couple of farm animals preferably goats since they're lesscostly as compared to cows. The reason behind this is so that in case I run into financial difficulty I can have a way out. I also intend to focus on nourishment since it is a challenge.

Personally I am quite grateful for the funds I received from the organization because they were quite life changing for me. I finally was able to accomplish something I wanted for so long which was to build a house for my family and the funds made that possible.

I had plans of using this money to build myself a better house since my old one was quite old and the iron sheets were always leaking when it rained. That is why after I got the chance to withdraw transfers I went ahead and purchased about twenty bags of cement which cost me KES 12,000. I then proceeded to spend KES25,200 and buying twenty pieces of iron sheets. I also decided to buy two goats which cost me KES 8,000 and proceeded to spend the remaining balance on nutrition.

It was exactly 4 in the evening when I was preparing an evening meal with my daughter when I had a vibration from my phone. Since I am illiterate, I requested my daughter to check where the messages were coming from. After opening the texts, she confirmed that it was an Mpesa message from the Segovia Technology. I was so happy and felt like it was a dream. I had to call all my family and informed them about the great news. After the celebrations, we started planning on how best we could utilize the cash transfers.

The biggest difference in my life is that I am now hopeful in life. Before the coming of GiveDirectly, I used to live a miserable life with lots of pain. My spouse passed on ten years ago and left behind eight kids. I have been raising the children single-handedly without any support from my in-laws. I depended on the charcoal business which was not profitable and this has been affecting my family. I could hardly, fend for all their needs especially proving for their daily meals. I have been thinking of owning assets more so goats so that I can depend on them in case of any emergence but this was not achievable. For now, I am a happy mother because I have goats in my compound that I can now rely on in case of any challenge. Currently, two have started reproducing which gives me hope of having many of them within a short period.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying three goats at KES at a total of KES 11000. This has been my long-time dream but I could not accomplish it because of the financial hardship that I was undergoing. I settled for the goats because they reproduce very fast as compared to the other domestic animals. Later on, I bought a new wooden door at KES 5000, and two bags of cement at KES 1200. This was for the renovation of my house which was almost collapsing because of the weak walls. Also, I cleared college fees for my daughter of KES 20000 who is in her second year. With the remaining amount of money, I bought foodstuffs for my family and other household items.