After using the most recent transfer to successfully buy a cow that I hope will increase our household's income in the future, I now want to address the food insecurity we are currently experiencing. We have been farming maize and beans on a little farm, less than an eighth acre, but due to its small size, we were unable to produce enough food to feed my family for a year. As a result, I rented a half-acre farmland this year with the intention of increasing both the quality and output of agricultural products. Since the weather has consistently been good, I am confident that the crops will prosper and produce enough food to feed our household. I won't just plant maize and beans, I will also plant sorghum, vegetables, and other crops. This will save us the cost of purchasing food and hence the money will be spent on other household needs.

The wisest course of action was to give people money and let them determine how to use it. The transfers have helped a lot of people improve their lives. For instance, if I had not been accepted into the program, I would still be relying on my husband, but that is no longer the case since I am now self-reliant and contribute to our family's expenses. We would encourage them to do the same for other regions as well because everyone in the community loves the organization.

I bought a dairy cow with the second transfer's $300. Although it is essential, especially in our location, we did not own one. The cow will be useful in the future, especially when it comes to paying for my children's tuition. We shall have another after it gives birth, and the milk it produces will be sufficient for our needs and for selling the extra. Since the market for motorcycle taxi services has recently become over saturated, my spouse, who is the primary breadwinner, does not make enough money from it to meet our demands. Consequently, the money we will make from the cow will increase our household's income. In addition, my three school-age children were staying at home because we lacked the funds to pay their tuition on time. So I paid the $50 they owed the school in full, and I'm happy they were able to attend all of their classes this year. In order to replace the worn-out garments my kids had, I also purchased $100 worth of clothing for them. We bought two bags of maize with the remaining $80 for usage in the house. We are appreciative for how the transfers have changed our life.

I felt very happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. I was at home cooking when I heard my phone ring and upon checking I saw the message. The message was a confirmation that I had received a sum of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I waited for my husband to come home where I shared the Ii information with him and he was equally very happy to hear this. We later withdrew the money and put it into good use as we had planned.

The biggest difference in our daily lives is that we are now one happy family. We no longer use a lot of money to purchase things like milk and this has left us with a substantive amount to save. We now save up to KES 500 per day thanks to the food that we bought in bulk once we got the first transfer.

I used KES 20000 to buy livestock and used the remaining amount to improve my house and to buy furniture. I made a decision to buy dairy since we did not have any at our home and we would spend a lot of money purchasing milk. My husband does the motorcycle riding to help put food on the table while I am just a housewife. The amount of income that he normally makes is just enough to feed our family and we are often left with nothing to save. We are now lucky that we can be able to save up enough money and we can be sure to make other valuable investments that are life changing in future.