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.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was 6 AM when I was still on my bed when I heard my phone vibrating so loudly indicating there was a new message. I decided to ask my brother to check what the message was all about since I was half awake. He later realized that it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirerctly I had finally received my first transfer as they had promised. I was so happy because I knew all my goals will finally be achievable. Due to the excitement that I had, I remember coming out of my bed fully awake. I started calculating and thinking about how best I would utilize the cash.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life is that I can talk of is the fact that I can now afford to have all meals in a day. Previously I had to take a single meal a day because I was lacking money to buy enough food. My children were malnourished because they could at times sleep hungry. I felt I had failed my children in providing such a basic need in their lives. I have been solely been depending on burning and selling charcoals in the local towns which was not such a lucrative business I used to get a very low income. With a family of seven, it was a struggle and it was hard for me to fulfill all their basic needs. I am now extremely grateful to this organization because my children are now healthy and because they have been taking sufficient meals lately courtesy of GiveDirectly.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent part of my first transfer on buying beddings which include a new wooden bed and mattress at a total of KES 11000. Since I was married I used to sleep on a traditional bed which was never comfortable was always complaining of backaches because of the discomforts. To add to that, I cleared school fees for my five children who are in primary schools. They have been on ad off for the entire team because of their huge arrears which used to frustrate them resulting in poor performance. With the remaining amount of money, I bought decent clothes and sufficient foodstuffs like flour, rice, beans, and vegetables. I am happy my children no longer skip meals as they used to do before.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I have been having a dream to start a retail shop business for more than 10 years but my dream has never been successful because of the economic hardship we are expiriencing in our area. It has not been raining for the last 4 years consecutively and we are getting hardship in putting food on the table for the family. I have thought of starting a retail business of selling dried fish, green vegetables and maize flour at our nearest township. Receiving this money means I will be able to do this business and this is the only way , I can alleviate hunger in my house.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Last month we got a government relief food of maize and beans. I got 20 kilograms.of maize and 7 kilograms of beans, food which relieved me from my straneous job of charcoal burning. However this relief is over and I am wondering how I will feed my family because I have not yet got a customer to sell my charcoal and I do not have food in my house.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Food insecurity and luck of clean drinking water is the biggest challenges we are facing in my house. Getting food means you have to do charcoal burning work which is very straneous and because everyone is relying on this job, the price of charcoal does remains stagnant. We are getting 500 KES per a suck of charcoal of 70 kilograms which is very little amount of money because working on a single suck of charcoal can take you more than 4 days. There is no water in our area. All water pans have dried up and we depend on motorcycle operators to bring water from Silaloni borehole which is 24 kilometres away from my house and we buy a 20 litres jerican at 100 KES which is too expensive to me. Something which can leave my family not taking shower for some days or even cook the food for the family.
