The biggest difference in my daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer is that I have bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk daily and this was so expensive for me because I depend on small scale farming and casual jobs. The amount of money that I get from this small casual jobs is so small and cannot meet all the basic household items. I used to devote much of my time doing this small casual jobs to earn some money to spend with my family. Currently I have bought a dairy cow and I no longer buy milk again. I am also so happy because I no longer do the casual jobs anymore I have devoted my time to my dairy farming and also the horticulture farming which I started with the second transfer. My family now have enough food and I am in a position to say school fees for my children on time. I am so grateful for GiveDirectly because it has enabled us to own cows and be optimistic in life.

GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build better houses and to pay school fees. I do find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well.

I spend part of the money I received from GiveDirectly to buy onion seeds, Beans, maize, Tomatoes seeds and finaly vegetables. I had always wished to start horticulture farming because I knew I would be able to earn an income within a short period of three months by selling the produce at the market. The main challenge was capital to start this. I spent around 5000ksh on this project and now I am doing so good. The rest of the money I bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk and it was so costly for me. I do casual jobs in the village to earn an income to meet household needs milk being one of the items on the list. Currently I have a dairy cow and I no longer buy milk which was so expensive for me. I earns an income through selling the surplus milk. I am so happy because I have devoted much of my time on my farm ,I no longer do casual jobs. I am so grateful for the support from GiveDirectly because it has changed my living standard.

I had gone out to do some casual work at a certain farm when I heard my phone ringing notifying me of an incoming message. I assumed it at first because I thought it is one of those random SMS's that are usually sent. It then hit me after a few minutes and I thought to myself that it might be the SMS of the lump sum transfer that we have been eagerly waiting for from GiveDirectly. I quickly removed my phone from my pocket and I checked the SMS. I could not believe it when I saw that it was the M-pesa message saying that we had received the transfer of 55000/= from GiveDirectly. I was filled with so much happiness on seeing this and I immediately called my wife to deliver the great news to her. She did not believe it and she asked me to forward the SMS to her. She called me back very happy because she now believed that it was true. We gave lots of thanks to God because He had opened a way for us.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. I have been able to build another house for my family that is bigger and roofed with iron sheets. We have hence been able to have enough space. The guests that will be visiting our household will also be able to have somewhere to sleep in. The new house has made us look like our neighbors who have houses that are roofed with iron sheets. The transfer has also enabled us to till and plant a part of our land that we had left untilled due to lack of money. We will hence be able to get more income because we will be able to sell the crops that we have planted in that piece of land. The maize that I bought will sustain us for a while and hence I will not be having worries about where to get money to buy food for my family. The children are also happy because they were able to get new clothes for themselves and also because they have something to eat.

The transfer from GiveDirectly has helped me a lot. I have been able to build another house that is bigger and roofed with iron sheets. I was also able to till and plant a part of our land that I had left untilled due to lack of money. I have also been able to weed it and with the remaining amount of money, I used it in buying maize for our consumption and I also bought some clothes for my children. I have always had the desire to build another house for my family because we have been living in only one house that is small and grass-thatched for quite a long time. The space in the house has not been enough for us and the guests visiting the household have hence been lacking somewhere to sleep whenever they visit us. I have not been in a position to do the above because I did not have a large sum of money that is needed for the construction to be done. My wife and I mainly depend on farming as our source of income since we have been looking for jobs without any success. We usually plant crops such as tomatoes, vegetables, and onions for sale. We have however been able to only till and plant a part of the land due to lack of enough money to till all. The money that we have we have thus been getting from the sale of the above crops has only been enough to buy food, pay for our children’s school fees, and buy other small necessities. I, therefore, thank GiveDirectly a lot because they have enabled me to achieve what seemed impossible for me to do.