I have a new plan of saving cash in the coming months so as to be able to take care of my school fees needs come next year when I will be commencing my college education.

For me, I would say that the biggest difference I have seen is the ease with which I have been taking care of my personal expenses within the past year. Initially, before I started getting the transfers, I used to rely 100% on financial help from my mother but I am glad all this has changed.

Once I join college, I will be able to expand my knowledge and be able to become successful in the future once I have my own business up and running. Of course, just gaining knowledge alone is enough change in my life.

I have been able to pay my school fees on time on my own without having to rely on my parents. This has relieved my parents and they can now divert the funds to my siblings as well as other household expenses. You can tell that a burden has been taken off their shoulders, especially my mother who is the family's breadwinner. I have seen a tremendous growth in her business over the past few months and she can now manage to save more.

I still have an outstanding fee balance for the term that we just began which I wish to clear before I sit for my final exams at the end of this year. For now, I do not have any additional goals other than clearing the fee balance. When this is done, I will be stress-free and can adequately prepare for the exams.

Since I have been using most of my transfers to pay my school fees and buy my personal needs, my mother has had a great financial relief for the better part of this year. This has allowed her to make more savings from her business which she can also boost whenever she receives her share of the transfers. We can now afford better meals and my mother looks less stressed because she does not have to worry about raising my school fees.

I hope that I will have cleared all the fees balance that I am currently owing my school so that when I complete high school, my certificate will not be held. With my certificate I can easily apply for a college to further my education and be able to achieve much in life. This is an opportunity my parents gave me in order to bring change back at home and I am happy and grateful for the support I got from Give Directly.

Apart from being able to pay school on time, we have some ease in meeting basic needs in the household. My mother used to bear all the burden of fending for the family and it could become worse when she fell ill. We had to find ways of surviving, I had to miss school and help her with the selling of foodstuff for us to get food for the day until she recovers. This was so traumatizing for her and I could see how stressed she was. That is not the case currently as we can now afford meals all through.

My new goal is to take a course in basic computer skills in the next four months. With these skills, I will be able to operate my own shop where I do typesetting for business purposes. This will also enable me to support my family too through the income I will be getting from the business.

The biggest difference in my daily is that I was able to pay school fees on time during the period I was in school. My father used to pay my school fees, unfortunately, he lost his job and my mother was left with the burden of fending for the family through the little income she gets from selling vegetables in the market. I was able to concentrate in class during these times and spend most of the time in class and not home too. Thanks to GiveDirectly for giving my mother easy time I was now able to cater for my school fees reducing her burden a little.

In the next six months, I expect my life to have changed for the better. I will no longer be selling perishables that most of the time goes bad and that meant losses for the business most of the times. My typesetting business will be running and giving me income.

I am very happy because I can stay in school without being sent home to go and collect fee balance because I pay my school fees using my transfers. This has enabled my mother to run her business with a lot of ease because she does not invest a lot in paying my fees but she invest in her business.

I am finishing my Secondary School this year November hence I am excepting to have started a small shop business which will enable me to have a source of income hence I can get some money to buy personal needs.

Life currently different from how it would have been had I never received the transfer in that I have been in school without being sent home for school fee and this has enabled me to perform better than I used to be because I can concentrate due to fewer school fees stress.

I do not have any goal because I am still in school and I have to concentrate on my studies and also how to pay my fee consistently without being sent home for fee balances.