Previously, the kind of farming that I was doing was so traditional that I could not even harvest enough maize for family consumption. When I received my first transfer, I invested so much in farming as I also bought fertilizers and maize seedlings from agrovet. I am looking forward to get some good investment returns as I am projecting on harvesting enough maize both for domestic use and commercial purpose. This accomplishment means that I will be able able to earn income from selling the produce and pay school fees for my children and cater for other needs.

What GiveDirectly does is supporting us to achieve our dreams. Majority of us in the village have been able to make steps forward in live and they will no longer be where the were some few months ago.

I am a peasant farmer and I am among the few in my community who have not been fortunate enough to own a dairy cow. Although I have been dreaming to own one someday, I have not been able to raise the money to buy one. I have been buying milk for my two children everyday and this money would have been saved towards some other needs if I had a cow. When I was enrolled in the program, I saw this as a dream come true because I knew I would own one in the near future. I spend $200 of my second transfer to buy a dairy calf, $80 to buy two goats and I have been spending the balance to buy food for my family and other basic needs.

It was a great feeling to receive the first transfer not only for me but also for my husband who was also excited after confirming the receipt of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. It was early in the morning as we were taking or breakfast when I received a notification confirming the receipt of the transfer. I had been sharing one phone with y husband and I was lucky to be having it that morning and had to break the news to him after confirming it first. We saw it a great opportunity to finally furnish our new house, obtain a heifer and also upgrade our wardrobe with the new outfits.

The plan to purchase a cow in our household has been with us for quite a long time. Despite the struggle to complete the construction and furnishing our new house, a day could hardly pass without my husband mentioning plans to ensure we obtain a cow soon. I was glad to see this dream come true as it has really taken us a great step ahead and is the biggest difference in my daily life. Any struggle to save for the same is no more but instead, we are starting to concentrate on other new projects.

With my young family of three, life has never been that hard over the past few years as we had been getting a lot of support from my mother-in-law. With our firstborn son, we have always been given at least a liter of milk every evening that even though it hasn't been enough, has supported me a lot in nursing my kid. With the first transfer, we saw it good to invest KES 15000 on a heifer that we are currently rearing with the hope to sustain us in milk production in the next few months. I was lucky to have completed the construction of a new house when I received the money, I only had to spend KES 10000 on obtaining a new piece of furniture since we had been using old ones inherited by my husband from his elder brother who also moved to a new house with new items. I also settled a debt of KES7000 with my neighbor, constructed a pit latrine with KES 8800 since we had been sharing one that was a bit far away from our house. I also obtained foodstuff worth KES 6000 and clothing for the family members at KES 7000. I am glad that we managed to do all that without straining the budget and we are expectant to even do a lot more with the second transfer.