My wish would be to see all my kids have a good education and a better life for themselves, as a result. I would also love to keep poultry and sell locally. This would go a long way towards ensuring we have financial stability as a household. It would also allow us to be able to assist our older kids financially, just as they assist us when they can.

GiveDirectly has allowed me to build a house for my family, as well as cater for some of my kids educational expenses as well. All I would ask is they continue to bless countless others as they have my family and if possible increase the amounts and the number of transfers they send.

Thanks to GiveDirectly I can now say with pride that I have half mud and half iron sheet house, with a verandah. The transfers allowed me to also get food and pay school fees for my kids. Seeing as I am a mason here in Midodoni, earning $8 a day, educating our kids has been a struggle. My wife is a stay at home, though she tries to get casual jobs, while my eldest child passed away, 2nd born is married and leading her life, my 3rd born just cleared form 4 and is now looking for a job in Mombasa, my 4th born is also in Mombasa after having dropped out in form 2 from lack of fees, my 5th born in Jaribuni Boys is going to form 4, my 6th born is yet to report back to Godoma Secondary due to lack of funds for a boarding school and we are now trying to find a day school. And my 7th just completed Grade 6. The funds, as I'm sure you can tell, have been the bridge between ourselves and abject poverty. We are eternally indebted to GiveDirectly.

I was at home in the evening relaxing when I got my phone beep and I could tell it was a text massage. Upon checking the message I got surprised that Give Directly had sent us money already. In as much we were expecting money from them but I felt it happened so fast. I had to confirm with one of my neighbors, and he too had received his. I was so happy and thanked God for the blessing. We expected we would wait for months before receiving the money.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the pride and hope I have knowing that I will soon have a better house. It has not been easy staying in a leaking house. Spending the whole night standing at a corner to shelter my family from the rain has been the worst experience in my life. As a man, I felt I had failed my family. The fact that I could not provide the most basic needs to my family made me have a low my self-esteem. I am grateful I now have all the materials ready for constructing a new better house.

I bought 33 pieces of iron sheets, timber, and nails at a cost of KES 35000 with the first transfer. I am planning to construct a new house so that I can replace the current one which is a single room with a leaking roof made of palm leaves. We are a family of 7, but we still squeeze ourselves in it since my low income could not allow me to construct a bigger one. I have children in both college and secondary school and raising their fees is a real challenge. Thinking of constructing a new house was not in my plans. I am glad to Give Directly came to our rescue. I am planning to construct a three-room house consisting of a kitchen, living room and a bedroom. At least my house will be organized and I will not have to use the same room for cooking, sleeping, and sleeping too. A portion of the money (KES 11000) I paid in both college and secondary school for my children so that I could clear the fee balance they owed the school. I am glad they were able to sit for their end year examinations since I cleared their fees. KES 8000 I spent on various foodstuffs for my family.