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.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My next goal in the next four months is to buy a heifer. I have been saving my monthly transfers through a merry go round and my turn of getting the transfers will be due by then. I will finally be able to fulfil my long term dream of owning one. This would be a great achievement because when it matures it will reproduce and increase in number. It will also be producing milk for use at home and for sale.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
I have two children who recently join lower primary school. With these transfers, I have been able to pay their school fees with less struggle. I usually depend on casual jobs for a living which is sometimes hard to rely on since such jobs are unpredictable. I believe that with these transfers, I will be able to establish myself financially and improve our living standards
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months, I would have bought a cow and will now save part of my earnings from casual jobs to start poultry farming. I intend to start this as I can manage running my home with the little income which I usually get from casual jobs. With the two sources of income, that is from the cattle's milk and my poultry farm, I will permanently stop doing casual jobs because I will now be financially stable
16th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($22 USD)
access_time over 5 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
My life is currently different from how it was four months ago in that I am now a proud owner of a heifer. I was able to achieve my dream of owning either a dairy cow or a heifer recently using my savings to buy a heifer. In addition to this, I was able to plant beans on my farm recently after harvesting maize something I had never achieved before. After harvesting, I will later sell them and use the money to cater for my children's education.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My additional goal for the next four months is to plant some tea cuttings in my nursery bed. I will later plant the seedlings on my farm after they have matured and can withstand the harsh environment.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
The biggest difference in my daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer is that I have been able to buy a heifer. It had always been my dream to own a dairy cow but I had not been able to due to lack of money. Owning a heifer is a major step towards fulfilling my dream of not buying milk anymore since I believe that it will reproduce and increase in number soon.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
I expect my life to have changed in the next six months in that I will have planted the tea cuttings in my nursey. I will just be waiting for six months to elapse so that I can transplant them in the field. Having my tea plantation is a long-lasting investment which will help me cater to my family needs on time. In addition to this, I will have started poultry keeping project. Hopefully, I will have finished building a chicken coop.
12th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($23 USD)
access_time over 5 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
Tea farming in our small farms has been a practice that everybody aspires to be part of. It is the only meaningful farming activity that one can take part in here. When I got married and moved to the land about seven years ago, I found a parcel of an acre that was allocated to me to plant tea. However, I have to raise my own seedlings because is very expensive to buy them. My income was also too low to buy tea nursery bed materials. Cash from GiveDirectly came and has been the only large amount I get at once. Seizing this opportunity to plan tea, I used the last four months transfers to raise seedlings. I am so happy to have the crop because when my children grow up, paying for their education needs including school fees not be a problem.
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
I plan to restart poultry keeping after the recent pandemic where all my chicken and those of my neighbors were killed by a disease. I will this time, use the money to build a poultry house. I will also use it to buy some chicken to rear
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
A drought has hit my home very hard at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Economic activities on tea farms went down. Casual jobs that I rely on were severely affected. To maake it worse, a deadly chicken disease killed all my birds and those of my neighbors. This means that catering for my family became a big problem. But with the transfers, I managed to pull through the very hard time by buying maize and milk that we use for the last four months. The bad weather and chicken disease previously led to hunger but the transfers made a big difference this time around.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months, I expect my life to have changed in that I will have restarted poultry keeping, I don't want to go through another time when I rely on casual jobs only like the last few months. The income I will be getting by selling eggs selling will contribute to the daily household budget.
8th Payment
Transfer Amount
2280 KES ($22 USD)
access_time almost 6 years ago
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How is your life currently different from how it was four months ago?
Initially, I used to strain with casual work even in adverse weather conditions- picking tea in the heat of the sun with my child on my back. The searing pain was unbearable. As I have continued receiving funds over the four months from GiveDirectly, I have gradually reduced the time I spend in the plantation. I do not have to work each day because the monthly transfer meets part of our basic needs. I can attend to my own work and even rest and feel like a human being!
Do you have any new or additional goals for your life for the next four months?
My new goal is to invest in poultry so as to sell them and get an income. There is also a ready market in our area. I will buy two-weeks-old chicks and rear them to be bigger and sell them; I will fetch a good revenue from that.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer.
My life is now different. I am hopeful for a better future. This is the biggest difference in my daily life. The tea that I planted two months ago using GiveDirectly transfer makes me optimistic that our standard of living will be better a few years to come. I will be having my own plantation as opposed to the casual work of picking tea which I currently do. I earn meagerly and rarely do we get enough to meet basic needs. The tea I have planted will be giving us a good income from sales hence a better living standard for us.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
In the next six months I expect to have my own tea plantation of 1 acre. The seedlings are currently in the seedbed awaiting maturity to be transplanted. I expect to have started to rear chicken for sale too. These two will be sources of income for us, which will translate to a better living standard for us. GiveDirectly funds have indeed helped us and we are grateful.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
2735 KES ($27 USD)
access_time over 6 years ago
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Do you have any new goals that you didn't have before receiving the transfer?
At the moment I am planning to lease a piece of land . This is a new goal which I think Will boost my other projects as we go along
How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My life has really changed and I am feeling the great difference in that I have great expectations for each month due to the assurance given by Give Directly.
How do you expect your life to change in the next six months?
I expect to have made greater strides in the next six months since if I keep the same projects I am planning now and God's willing others which I will start, I will have improved economically by the end of that six Months.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life is that I currently have a great confidence in the plans I am making knowing that Give Directly will be giving me some money every month.
Enrolled
access_time over 6 years ago
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
In the year 2012, I planted maize on my farm and that year experienced a heavy infestation of maize disease. The infestation was so severe that all my maize crop were destroyed and I ended up with zero production. For the whole of the year, I had to keep buying maize day in day out for subsistence use with my family . This for me was the biggest hardship I have ever experienced.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The happiest part of my day is in the evening when I come back from casual job of tea picking with some cash to buy stuff for my family-then cook for them and enjoy supper together with my husband and my two kids.
What are you planning to spend your transfer on?
I am planning to spend my transfer on starting tea farming on a small scale level. I have always had thought of venturing myself on tea farming.
What is the achievement you are proudest of?
When I was still unmarried and at home, I started raring two chicken and by the time I was leaving home after I had gotten married, I had close to one hundred of them. I later sold half of the chicken and bought a cattle for my parents while the remaining ones continued to multiply. Today as we speak my parents have a steady cash flow from the poultry project of mine and sometimes they surprise me with a token of appreciation. This for me is the greatest achievement of my life