Currently I am living in a grass thatched house which is too small and not enough for my family. My children sleep at my neighbours house and most of the time they skip taking supper during rainy season to avoid being rained on, besides, most of the homes in my community have no access to electricity and so they have to go so early to avoid moving in the dark. I am planning to build a decent house in the coming one year to avoid such inconveniences. In the coming year and beyond I am planning to build a kiosk structure by my homestead for starting up a small business of selling groceries and cereals. The profits gained will be for the basic needs like food, clothing and education of our children.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps in planning as one is in a position to do something huge as compared to when the transfers are given in small instalments. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. What needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household to avoid household conflict. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration to the programs.

Before I was enrolled in this program, I never had any cow in my homestead which according to my community, one is despised if you do not own any cow. I used part of the transfers of kshs 25,000 to buy a female cow for milk production. In the future when milk will be in excess I will be using it for consumption and sale to get money for other basic needs like food and shelter. I used kshs 5,000 to pay for the loans and debts. I am a parent of three children who are in Secondary School, I used kshs 20,000 to clear their school fees arrears that have accumulated for the past few years.

On reading the message and confirming that it was from GiveDirectly, I was happy and thankful. It was around 5:00 PM when I got the news of the receipt of the first transfer on my way home. I had to increase my pace and conveyed the news to my family that was so excited before taking a ride back to the shopping center, where I collected part of the money that I used to purchase household goods.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the joy of having a heifer ready to be served in the next few months. Even though I am still spending a lot on sourcing milk, I hope that in the next few months, my children will enjoy a plentiful supply of milk from our farm.

We had been struggling to live each day with at least a meal that was hard to come by with my family of six. The receipt of the first transfer was the best thing to have happened to my family that was on the verge of sleeping hungry that night. I could not wait further after receiving the money but withdrew KES 8000 from which I spent KES 5400 on buying foodstuff. Everyone was joyous that night as we shared a meal with smiles and gratitude on our faces. Two days later, I also bought a heifer at KES 29000 that I am hopeful will soon end the huge spending on a daily liter of milk from the neighborhood. In addition, I spent the remaining amount on clearing the KES 1300 tuition fees for my two kids in primary school, cleared the debt of KES 6500 that I had with my two immediate neighbors, and used the remaining amount on obtaining new pairs of school uniforms for my two kids and extra two blankets to replace the tattered ones we had been using for the past seven years. I am glad that we are enjoying warm bedding in this cold season that I am certain has kept my children safe from the cold.