I had taken a loan of $155 to pay school fees for my son Denis. This debt is not giving me peace because I cannot afford to pay it back. When I receive the transfers from GiveDirectly, I will clear my debt. I have a dream of expanding my business but capital has been my biggest challenge. I will inject $120 of the transfer to my business. This will help me maximize profits from my business. It is also sad that we do not have a pit latrine, this is a shame to us. I will set aside $200 of the transfers to build a better pit latrine for my family. I will also use $300 of the transfers to construct a kitchen for my family.

It was in April 2024 when we had flash floods in our area. Our crops and farms were completely destroyed and this affected our family income. I had to find other ways of putting food on the table. I started hawking vegetables within the village and this saved my family a lot. Despite the losses we experienced, my business reduced my struggle of putting food on the table for my family of eight.

I had promised myself that I will work hard and give my children a quality education. However, financial challenges are making my dream fade away. Subsistence farming is our main source of family income, it is unfortunate that lately, crop farming is performing poorly due to the extreme effects of climate change. We are therefore struggling to meet our ends which is heartbreaking. Most households in my community are shifting to an irrigation farming system since rain is no longer reliable. This type of farming is costly and this disadvantages us since we do not have the financial power. It was in April when our 2 acre piece of land was swept away by the flash floods. The crops that we planted were also destroyed and as a result of this, we are faced with food shortage in the family.