My life is different in that I now own cattle, I own an oxen plough and I will now be able to keep my children in school because I can pay their school fees without much difficulty now.

Give Directly has done well to bring me out of poverty, to a place where I can live a more fulfilling life. I now own cattle and I have a better house and a business; something I never thought I could ever have. I have not seen anything wrong that Give Directly has done.

I spent my second transfer to pay school fees for my children, to buy an oxen plough and also to start a clothes business. Initially, I used to burn and sell charcoal in my village, but of late, trees have reduced and the business can be quite exhausting. I was making very little money from charcoal burning and selling. I begun selling clothes when I first received my second transfers. I bought scarfs, children's clothes and uniforms in Mombasa town to resell in my village. Currently, I hawk these clothes around in my village as I wait for my shop to be repaired to completion. I am happy with this business because already I am recording profits and making money out of it to sustain me. This business is also less exhausting. I am grateful to Give Directly for this transformation in my life. I also purchased an oxen plough to prepare myself for the rains and the planting season. I used to hire for ploughing services at a cost, but am happy now I will not need to spend my money on these services. I have my own cattle from my first transfers and now I own my own oxen plough. My life is totally transformed.

We are generally living in a changed environment since we received the transfers. I can attest to the fact that, the two oxen and the new house we are constructing for my children in our household and soon coming to an existence in our household are equally big, but the joy-filled family we now have is the biggest difference I never anticipated in my life.

On receiving the money, happiness was all over. As I was still sleeping, I was wondering what would have woken up the neighbors so early since I could hear some voices and touches of laughter from the nearby households. On checking the phone intending to confirm what time it was, the message icon covering my screen met my eyes. To relieve my anxiety, I decided to open the message thinking that it's the normal random service provider messages I have been receiving. Fortunately, it wasn't, what I saw made me shout sending my husband to calm me down. He had to take the phone and also read it by himself and as advised by the GiveDirectly staff during enrollment, he reminded me to calm down. We informed my mother in law since she was part of our planning team. The long silence which had been in existence between my husband and I ended that day and nowadays we are talking, laughing and at least sharing even a seat in our house which had not been happening before.

Having been struggling with my relatively crude farm tools over the rainy season and sometimes queuing to get a chance to use oxen from those who have, I decided to spend 30000 KES of my transfer in buying my own oxen. I have always been coming last in consideration by the few members in the village who have been going around tilling lands for the other members without oxen; this I am soon bringing to a stop I spent 10000 KES out of the remaining amount in purchasing iron sheets. In our household we have been having only two houses - one has been acting as a kitchen as well as a bedroom for my children, husband and I and the other one is occupied by my mother in law who has been staying with us for around four years now. The fact that our children are growing older and ought to be having their separate house to sleep away from us have been our intent thought and getting GiveDirectly transfers freed our mind of much thinking since it became our ultimate solution. We are planning to save a small remaining amount so that we can start a small business which will be checking our daily needs and covering the school fees for our kids. The happiness of late have been our thing and we really thank GD so much for the consideration.