I have been feeling unwell for quite sometime now. This has left me making several visits to hospital in an effort to find a lasting solution to my current situation. In the next year and beyond, I will be focusing on my health first as I make intentional efforts to pay school fees for my children who are still in secondary school. I have three children who are in their secondary school level of education and getting enough money to pay their school fees shall be one of my priorities going forward. I will be relying on small scale farming and livestock keeping to raise such money and I am glad that I would not have other projects that may prevent me from achieving this.

GiveDirectly does very well by giving their support in terms of cash and accompanying that with the freedom to choose how someone would want to spend their money is even more marvelous. Looking at the kind of investments that I have made over this period makes me very happy. These are things I would not have done had I not been given the freedom to choose what to do for myself. I did not find anything with GiveDirectly that I thought would have been done better.

When I received my second transfer of $531, I used $100 to pay school fees for one of my child who is in secondary school. I also had a house under construction that had stalled for more than two years, I therefore used $200 to erect ceiling boards and to paint both houses. I am happy that the houses are now brand new courtesy of the transfers that I received from GiveDirectly. The current long dry spell had left us living from hand to mouth since we would use all the money acquired from casual work to buy food for family and we were left with very little amount of money to save for such investments. I then used the remaining amount of approximately $200 to till a piece of land, buy clothes for my children and other basic household needs that we did not have then. I perhaps would not have been able to accomplish all these anytime soon had I not received a transfer from GiveDirectly and it is for this reason that I am extremely grateful. I bless the source of the support that we received that they may reach out to many more people like us in different locations.

I was preparing supper when I heard a ringtone message notification from my phone it was around 7 Pm, My spouse was at home and he checked out who could have texted us. I felt so happy when he said that it was a message from GiveDirectly confirming that we have received the transfer. We celebrated because we knew that we would be able to pay the school fees that were giving us sleepless nights. We are so grateful for the support because GiveDirectlypromised us the money and sent it on time. We withdraw the money the following day and started planning on how to spend it. GiveDirectly has improved our living standard to be much better than before.

Purchasing a dairy cow is the biggest difference in my daily life. This is because I had sold most of my cows to pay the school fees for my two children in secondary school. I depend on casual jobs in the village and small-scale farming as a source of income. The amount of money that I got through this was so small and I was not able to clear the school fees on time. This made me sell my cows to pay the school fees. My family was not getting enough milk like before. When I received the money from GiveDirectly I felt so happy because this was my opportunity to purchase a dairy cow. Currently, I have a dairy cow and my family gets enough milk. I no longer get worried like before. I have peace of mind to conduct my daily activities at home. Were it not GiveDirectly it would have taken me quite some time to own a dairy cow.

I spent KES 37,000 on purchasing a dairy cow. This is because we had sold our cows to pay the school fees for our children in secondary school. We did not have enough milk for the family. that time. Currently, we have enough milk for the family and we no longer get worried. For the rest of the money, I paid school fees for my two children in secondary school. They used to be sent home sometimes to collect their school fees and this was affecting their performance. Currently, they are studying well without being disturbed. I hope to see better performance. I am so grateful because GiveDirectly has enabled us to improve our living standards.