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.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($462 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
For now, I have got no any new goal in mind apart from concentrating on the latter project of having many livestock after having purchased two cows . Furthermore, the education of my children will also be my priority.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
Being chosen to be part and parcel of the beneficiary of this noble program and being served professionally is plus for me. So far there is nothing that GiveDirectly does not do well.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
My most recent transfer was spent on purchasing two cows at the cost of KES 40000. My main catch is to sell their calves when they give birth and use their proceeds to pay school fees for my five children. Indeed this has been my dream and I am glad that it came to pass courtesy of the GiveDirectly's Cash transfer. To make ends meet, we having been vending charcoal as a family. Thank you to the GiveDirectly cash transfer program for through it we have managed to feed our family of seven and pay school fees for our children comfortably. When they give birth , I can sell to to pay fees for my children.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($475 USD)
access_time over 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was around 7 AM when I was at my farm together with my spouse when my mobile phone started to vibrate very loudly. Since I am illiterate my spouse had to check where the message was coming from at that time of the hour since it was so unusual. Upon reading the texts, he confirmed that they were from GiveDirectly notifying me that I had received my first transfer. I felt so happy and I remember we even had to go back home and celebrated with all my family members.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest diligence in my daily life that I will always mention is the fact that I now have a pair of oxen. It has been my prayer to have them since I am a farmer and they would be of help. Back in the day, I used to take a lot of time in preparing my farm and sometimes ended up harvesting poor yields. This is because I was not able to utilize all my three acres of land. After all, I only depended on my two hands. I am now a happy farmer because the future is promising. I will be able to prepare the farms in good time which is an assurance of good products. Also, I will be hi the, my friends, at a fee and generate an income. I am glad that it will be a relief to my family which is comprised of five members, we will no longer starve like before.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent part of my first transfer on buying a pair of oxen at a total of KES 32000. As a farmer, it has always been my desire to own them but I could not afford them because they were very expensive. I settled for them purposely for my family activities. I have been using my hand when preparing my farm which was quite tiring and time-consuming. In addition, I bought a new television at KES 10500. I have now enjoyed watching the news every evening with my family and I am now well informed about what has been happening around the world courtesy of GiveDirectly. With the remaining amount of money I bought foodstuffs for my family and other household items that I was lacking.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I would like to buy cattle when I get this money. At the moment I do not even have any form of saving neither do I have a reliable source of income. I mostly burn and sell charcoal for a living while my husband is a motorcycle taxi rider. The job isn't that lucrative, I averagely make about 2000 KES monthly while my husband can make up to around 12000 KES per month. This isn't enough to take care of our five children in one month. But even if we manage to get food throughout, it's hard to create savings from that. When I buy cattle I will be able to keep them as my savings. That's in the sense that I can resell them at any time of need.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I felt happy when my husband finished paying back his loan that he' used to acquire motorcycle. This was such a big debt and I was always afraid we were going to struggle with it. It was a total of 170000 KES, quite a big debt for our humble sources of income. The reason I felt happy when he managed to pay the last bit of it was that he could now start making profit from his motorcycle taxi business.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
I burn and sell charcoal for a living. This is a very tough job for a lady but I have to do it to be able to eek out my husband's income. At the moment the biggest challenge is unavailability of big trees. This activity has been inexistence for more than five decades and for that reason a lot of deforestation has taken place. Nowadays it's hard to just get big trees, we end up burning the available shrubs that can't give us good quality of charcoal that the market wants.
