My life is so different, in that I have furniture in my house and that I now have a good house courtesy of GiveDirectly. Before, I used to struggle with casual jobs but the earnings were not enough to purchase foodstuffs and save some for buying building materials. Now am happy that we have a good shelter with good furniture in it. Also we have enough food in stock as well as healthy crops in our farm which is an assurance of good harvest which grantee food security in the near future.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well by giving money to every household in our village. This was very fair to all of us. I hope that there was not which was not done well as the process was free and fair.

With my first transfers, I managed to build a ironed roofed house and this was a great step in my life. It was never done until when I got my second transfers which enabled me to acquire furniture. I bought furniture worth KES 20600. These made my house comfortable and a warm place to rest after days work. I then spent KES 10000 on buying building materials for constructing a house for my children. I opted to have one for them so that after being intiated they will have a place to sleep. I spent KES 8000 on buying 4 sacks of maize for consumption and KES 45000 on buying fertilizers and seeds for planting. I saved KES 10000 so that I would spend on paying school fees for my children next term.

It was in the afternoon and I was at home relaxing when I heard a message alert on my phone. I checked it and to my surprise, it was the M-Pesa message saying that we had received the lump sum transfer of 55000/= from GiveDirectly. I was so happy to see this and I immediately informed my other family members who were so happy to hear this. We celebrated together giving thanks to God.

This transfer has brought a big difference in my family and that of my family. We have been able to buy the cow that we have always desired. My children will thus have milk for their consumption and we will no longer have to incur the costs of buying milk. Having bought iron sheets, I plan to construct the house with the next transfer so that my children will have a place to sleep in. They will no longer have to go to other people’s houses to sleep. I am also happy having paid school fees for the children and hence I will no longer have stress about where I am going to get money to do so. The food that we bought with the transfer is going to push us for a while and hence we will not be having worries about what we are to eat for quite some time. We hence no longer go hungry like before when we had to forgo meals at times. My children are very happy because they have food to eat and they have new clothes for themselves. Thank you GiveDirectly for coming up with this program of helping the needy.

The transfer from GiveDirectly has helped me and my family in several ways. I bought iron sheets with the part of the money that I plan to use on constructing a house that my children can sleep in. I also bought a cow with part of the transfer, food for our consumption, and paid for the children’s school fees. With the remaining amount of money, I used it in buying clothes for ourselves and the children. The reason why I wanted to construct another house that the children can sleep in, is because the one that they are sleeping in right now is grass-thatched and it has become old. Sometimes the grass comes out and there is none to fill it up with, getting grass has become hard since it is no longer available. My children have hence been forced to at times seek a place to sleep in in the neighborhood. I also wanted a cow because my children have been lacking milk for consumption. We have been buying milk which is very expensive for us, a litre goes by 50/=. Due to the cost, we have hence had to buy a little which is not enough for the children to consume. I have not been in a position to do the above due to lack of money. We depend on farming as our source of livelihood and maize has not been doing well in our area due to a disease that has been affecting it for a while. The little money that I have hence been getting has been especially going to school fee payment and buying food.