By the time I received my recent transfer, I was already progressing with the building process of my house. Since I wanted to complete it in time, I had no new goal except to refocus on how to fast-track the completion of my house. I am so glad that it is a done deal. I am currently living in a better house compared to the previous one. The former house was small and hence could not comfortably accommodate my entire family.

Since the main aim of GiveDirectly is to alleviate poverty, I think it does well in giving out unconditional cash transfers to all its beneficiaries. Personally, the transfer has enabled me to build a house that I could not manage to build since I did not have a reliable source of income. In addition, its way of operation is so clear and transparent. As a result, no one was left out based on biasness. I have not so far observed what GiveDirectly does not do well.

Immediately after I got my transfer, I spent KES 40,000 on buying additional building materials. As a result, I managed to build a new house that longed for, for years. I am glad that currently, I am having not only a better but a spacious house. In addition, I also bought food and clothes for my children because I did not have food due to the prolonged drought. In life, I depend on charcoal making. Unfortunately, my husband is jobless, he cannot support the family.

I can still remember just like the other day, it was exactly 5 in the evening when I was preparing dinner when my elder son confirmed that I had received my first KES 55000. At first, I thought it was a prank since he is full of jokes, upon checking I realized that it was true. I felt wow! And I wish you could see how I reacted. It was such a great moment for my whole family and due to the excitement that we had, we could not afford to sleep.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I now have my piece of land. I have been yearning to own it for quite some time but I could not afford it because they were very costly. The initial land was not that productive besides, it was for my sister who no longer stays in the village. I was always worried that as my children grow, they would be frustrated in the future in matters of land inheritance. Also, I used to get very poor and low farm products hence the unending famine. My spouse and I have been depending on odd jobs to make the ends meet. There is now hope tha, we will be harvesting enough yields that we would no longer skip meals and the money that we have been using in purchasing food will cater for some other household expenses. I am extremely happy this far because if it were not for them, my life would still be the same.

I spent KES 15000 of my first transfer on buying a piece of land ( 1 acre). I had to pay in installments because I had some other household bills to settle at the moment. I, however, settled to purchase it because the initial one was for my sister and I felt there is a need to have my own for the sake of my children. Later on, I cleared school fees of KES 4000 for my son who is in class seven. He has been at home for weeks because of the arrears and the exams were just around the corner. All I can say is that we are grateful because the money came on time and he was able to sit for the exams with his colleagues. In addition to that, I bought decent clothes and shoes for all my six children With the remaining amount of money I bought foodstuffs for the family.