I have always struggled to make ends meet in life. This is because I have a small cloth business which has been my main source of income. Due to many family needs, I have always used the resources from the business without investing back. As a result, the business has gone down and without the transfers from GD, it would have collapsed by now. I have always struggled to raise money for our needs and sometimes I had tom borrow to meet our needs. Since I started receiving the transfers, I have always used part of it to boost the business which is now doing well. The fear of it collapsing is no more and the struggles I used to go through to meet my family needs are no more. Thanks to GD for the transfers.

For now, I am focussed on improving my business. Apart from the amount, I will be paying in school and for household needs, most of my transfers will go to the business. I am planning to make it stable so that it can sustain our needs long after the transfers are over. It is the only income I have now.

I spent part of my transfer to pay school fees arrears for my child who is in primary school. I had received a letter warning me that without paying the money, she will not take lunch in school. I had to do something and then I got the transfers. I am glad I provided for my family without her knowing what was at stake. The rest of the transfer I used on boosting my cloth business by adding more stock. Currently, I am hawking the clothes but when I will have gotten a good stock, I am planning to rent a premise which I know will help improve on my profits to help provide for the family well.

Currently, I have been able to expand my business a little bit and the profits have added up. I am glad its doing well because with the profits and the transfers I am able to provide for my family things like food and daily basic needs without borrowing from friends. Who valued me as a non trustworthy person since the loans I borrowed from them I could not commit on time. At time if I saw my neighbor who I had his/ her debt along the road I had to dodgy . Thanks to GiveDirectly since I feel free and peaceful after settling all the debt I had.

My new goal is to start a boutique business. Out of my research I have realized we do not have many boutique in my area that is the the reason why I would want to utilize this opportunity well to help me boost my business . My ambition is to help young people especially the youth to nature their talent through employing them to hawk clothes for as I pay them on commission . This idea would encourage them not to engage in drugs or crime which might be contributed due to idleness.

I spent my recent transfer to restock my shoes business 3000 KES . This was a booster to my business to my business since the sales had gone down. I also added my saving to the remaining amount and paid my house rental on time. Rent has been a burden on my side to an extent that I had to talk to my landlord to pay in bits. The money really helped me to pay this months .

My life has taken a different trajectory because today, paying school fees for my children has become a very easy thing for me unlike how I used to struggle so much in the past. I also find it easy taking care of other financial needs of the house such as buying food for the family without having to dig much deeper into my pockets. Like I said before, I have always wanted to expand the size of my business but then due to lack of capital capacity, my business has always dragged a lot, but today things have changed for the good.

I am planning to improve my business by opening a new branch in another area where I have already identified to be a good zone for such a business. I will need to make more savings so that this dream can become a reality within five months from today.

I used the cash to pay school fees for my two kids who had some pending arrears which had to be paid in good time in order for them to be allowed to carry on with their normal sessions in school. of the arrears. Half of the transfers were used to increase my stock capacity which in a way acted like a business expansion which will definitely play an important role in generating more cash for my business. I have been selling shoes within Mathare area for quite a long time now but the only challenge I have always faced is getting enough capital to expand the business. Finally, I remained with one thousand shillings which I decided to save in my Mshwari account for emergencies that may occur in the future.

My goal is to start a new business where I sell second hand clothes. I will save part of my monthly transfers and the income from my business and use the savings to start this business. This will be an additional source of income to pay rent, buy food and pay school fees for my children.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have expanded my business. I used my transfers to buy more shoes and the income I get from the business is enough to meet all my basic needs. I no longer struggle to pay rent and buy food for my family as I used to do in the past when I used to get little income from my business.

I spend my most recent transfer to stock my business where I sell shoes. I bought more shoes and the income I get from the business is enough to meet all my family basic needs. I no longer struggle to provide for my family and pay rent as I used to do in the past. Thank you Give Directly for the cash transfers.

I was so happy when I received my first transfer. I was preparing to to go to open my shop when I received Mpesa notification message that I have received my transfers. I knew that I will be able to buy food for my family since I did not have a single coin in my pocket that morning.