My life is currently different in that I am now equal in my living standards to some people I thought I would never be at bar with. I have been able to build a new spacious house and a kitchen. I have also been able to buy a dairy cow that will assist me a long way in meeting the basic household needs. Going to the river to fetch water is now a thing of the past after I was able to buy a water tank.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does so well in giving unconditional cash transfers, something I have never heard of in other Non governmental organisations. I do not have any reservations as to whether GiveDirectly does not do well in their operations. I just have a feeling that they did perfectly what they did and were not biased at all in selecting the people to benefit from their transfers. We are looking forward to working with them even ion future.

I used part of my second transfer to complete my newly constructed house, part of it to buy a dairy cow and the remaining amount was used to buy food and other basic household commodities. I used KES 15000 to pay school fees for my children who are in secondary school. Buying a dairy cow for the family had always been my dream as mother. It was so embarassing to go shopping for milk while we have a large piece of land for the family that was idle while it would have helped us a lot as a family.

The biggest difference in my daily life is having a water tank. I used to walk long distances to fetch water. This water is not clean and not safe for drinking. But currently, I harvest rainwater and store it in the water tank. The ability to store rainwater has reduced the risk of contracting water-borne diseases since it is safer to drink than the stream water. It is also very convenient since I do not have to walk to the stream to collect it.

I received the message notification very early in the morning. Upon checking, it was text notification from MPESA notifying me that I have received a transfer from GiveDirectly. I could not hold my happiness. I extended to my family the good news.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying a water tank. Our area is mostly affected by drought so most of the time we lack water both for domestic use and animals. To get water, one has to travel long distance looking for them and mostly they are not safe for drinking. Secondly, I used the other part of it to buy building materials to build an improved kitchen house since the one I had started leaking. Lastly, I spent the rest on paying the school fees for my children. Most of the time the income from my subsistence farming has gone down because of the drought, therefore, I could afford to pay school from farming income.