Solely depending on my husband to provide for our family of five puts so much pressure on him. The salary he makes working at a butchery is only enough to cover food expenses and nothing beyond that. Therefore, I wish to start a food-point business in my village, where I will be cooking and selling local dishes. I estimated the initial capital at $150. Operating this business will ensure that other needs like my three children’s tuition fees are catered to. 

Give Directly does a good job of giving needy people unconditional money and allowing them to choose how to spend the cash. Personally, I was able to build a more spacious house for my family from the transfers. According to me, there is nothing that Give Directly needs to improve in their work. I only wish the transfers would continue coming. 

Previously, my husband, three children, and I used to occupy a one-room house, which was growing small for our growing family. Given the salary that my husband earned from working as a butcher man, it would have been challenging to raise enough money to build a larger house. Through the cash aid, Give Directly presented a great opportunity to actualize our dream of a bigger structure. I used the entire cash transfer to fund the construction of the new three-room house I had started building through the initial transfer. Particularly, I spent $ 250 on iron sheets, $190 on planks, and the remaining balance on labor compensation. I am happy that my family fully relocated to the new house and we have been enjoying the space ever since. 

It was around 3 PM when I was about to go to the dam when I heard a vibration from my phone. Without wasting time, I decided to check the contents. I was overwhelmed with joy to learn that it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. Due to the excitement that I had, I could not afford to go to the dam. I had to call all my family members and shared the good news. We were all thankful and excited for we knew that we would sleep in a conducive environment.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that in that I now have a decent and spacious house. The initial one was almost collapsing and very small in size. It could hardly accommodate all my five family members. My two children used to sleep at my relative house and I was not comfortable with that since I felt they were a burden to them. Also, I was unable to host visitors which was so embarrassing. I had the zeal to upgrade the house for years but I have been jobless and used to rely on my spouse for all our needs. We could split the little he could earn to pay fees for our two children and the remaining cash for food. This clarifies that it would take ages for me to build a better house using my cash. I am so happy that for now, I am sheltering with all my kids under one roof and there is an extra room for visitors. This has restored my dignity and joy in life.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying building materials such as iron sheets at KES 20000, building poles at KES 6000 and the labour charges of KES 12000. This was for the construction of a new house because the previous one was small in size therefore t could not accommodate all my five family members. This forced my two children to sleep at my relative's houses which were never comfortable. I felt I was failing them as their mother since they were still young and needed parental care and love. I am so glad to finally be able to sleep under one shelter with them. This has also brought so much joy. With the remaining amount of money, I bought foodstuffs for my five family members and other household items.