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We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time. Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
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Enrollment
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Transfers
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Completed
Newsfeed > Irene's Profile
Irene's family
Irene
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Subsistence farming
faceAge:
59
workCampaign
Kenya Large Transfer
There will be no further updates from this completed recipient.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($493 USD)
access_time over 2 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My life is different than how it would have been if I never received the transfers in that I was able to pay school fees for my daughter who is in collage. I do not have a continuous source of income, I depend on small scale farming to earn income to support my family. At some point I sold a piece of land to pay the school fees for my daughter because I didn't had any other options left. When I received the second transfer I felt so overwhelmed with joy. I knew I would not sale the land. I paid all the school fees and my daughter studied well. I am so much grateful for the support because it has reduce the stress that I had. I can now so my work at home so comfortable.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
In my opinion GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build better houses and to buy dairy cows. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spend part of the money I received from GiveDirectly on paying school fees for my daughter who is in the college. I am so happy because I did not sole a piece land. I also bought sofa set seats and food for the family. The rest of the money I top up when my son's and bought a piece of land. I am so grateful for the support because GiveDirectly has enabled us to own an assets.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($500 USD)
access_time 3 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was at home having lunch with my family when I heard a message notification on my phone. I decide to stop and check what the SMS was all about. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that it was an M-Pesa message saying that we had received the lump-sum amount that GiveDirectly had promised us. I became so happy about this and I shared the good news with my husband. He was so happy too to hear this. We gave a lot of thanks to God because the transfer was going to help us achieve what we had planned to do.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. We have been able to buy the cow that we had for a long time desired to have. I will thus be able to get milk that my children can consume and we can sell some. The money from the milk sales will be of great help to me because I will be able to use it on important things such as paying school fees for my children. Having paid the college fee arrears, I now have some peace of mind because I no longer wonder where I am going to get the money to do so. The food that I bought with part of the transfer is going to push us for a while and hence I will not be having worries about what my family is to eat. All of the above has been possible courtesy of the transfer from GiveDirectly. I hence thank GiveDirectly a lot for the support.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
The transfer from GiveDirectly has helped us in a big way. I used part of it in buying a cow together with its calf. I decided to buy a cow because I have been incurring the cost of buying milk. My children have hence been lacking enough milk for their consumption. I had some cows before but I had to sell them to pay school fees for my children. Paying school fees has always been a big challenge for us and we have been forced to do everything possible to clear them including selling part of our land. The transfer also helped me in paying for college fee arrears that my child had. I also gave part of the money to my daughter who has been living with me at home. She wanted some money to add to the one that she had so that she could buy a piece of land that she had always desired to have. She wanted the piece of land because she wanted to move to another place of her own and live there. The transfer also enabled me to buy some food that is, a bag of maize and a bag of rice for my family’s consumption. I was not in a position to do the above before especially to buy another cow because I didn’t have a large sum of money that was going to be needed to do so. I depend on small scale farming of growing and selling vegetables, tomatoes to earn a living. The money that I have been getting from this has mostly been going to the payment of school fees for the children and buying food.
 
Enrolled
access_time over 3 years ago
 
What does receiving this money mean to you?
My child was diagnosed with meningitis in December 2018. We then spent USD 1000 seeking treatment for him. I stayed in hospital for 2 months with him. Since we couldn't raise all the money for the hospital bill we sold all our assets including livestock and land which we were using to earn our daily bread. With these transfers we would like to buy another land since when we sold the one we had we can no longer produce enough food for our family.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The happiest part of my day is in the morning because am usually filled with energy and this makes me hope for a better day later that evening.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
When we sold our assets due to the sicknesses of our child I faced the hardest time of my life since the land was gone and we could no longer sustain our family with food. We could not produce enough food in our farm and this this was so stressful to us.