I had retired to bed at around 11 PM when I received two messages on my mobile phone which was so unusual. I was even scared and I was forced to ask my son to confirm for me the contents of the texts. At that moment I was trembling terribly becasue of the anxiety. After going through them, he realized that it was an Mpesa message from Segovia Technology I had finally received my cash transfers as promised. I was so happy and together as a family we had to say a special prayer and thank God for the blessing. This will always be a memorable night in our dear lives.

The biggest difference in my daily life that I will always mention is the fact that my children have a decent house to shelter on. Before the coming of GiveDirectly, they used to seek shelter from their friends whose houses were very far from the village. As their mother, this issue has been stressing me a lot and I was always worried about their wellbeing. Our family house was very small and it could only accommodate two people and its condition was not good at all. I had to endure all the pain and troubles since my spouse is very old and therefore I had to make sure I step in and made sure all the ends meet. However, from the charcoal business, all I could earn cold only cater for the daily meals, and the remaining cash for fees though this was not a guarantee, somedays we could skip some meals. This, therefore, means building a new house for my children would take ages for me to accomplish. I am extremely happy for no because my children no longer have to move from one compound to the other instead, they shelter under one roof. They now have ample time and space to study at night which has improved their academic performance. I will always be thankful to GiveDirectly for transforming my life positively.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying some building materials which comprises of ten pieces of iron sheets at KES 10000 and the building poles at KES 1250. I bought all these with an intention of construing a new house for my children who have been seeking shelter from one compound to the other in the village which I was not good at all. This has been frustrating me for quite some time but I could not help out since the required materials were very costly. I am also planning to purchase a pair of oxen at KES 25000 which I believe will be of help, especially for my agricultural activities. Initially, I have been using my hand to prepare the land which was very tiresome, and getting quantity yields was not attainable. I also cleared school fees of 2000 for my children who are in primary schools. With the remaining amount of money, I bought enough foodstuffs for my family.