Our new goal is to buy new chairs for our household. We managed to build another house with the recent transfer but we were not able to buy chairs since the money was not enough. Our other goal is to get money for paying school fees for our four children. Three in secondary school and one in the university. We mainly depend on farming to earn a living where we usually grow crops such as vegetables, and beans and we supply them to the schools where our children are studying to pay school fees. We at times cut down trees and supply firewood to the schools. When our cows have calved, we also usually supply the milk.

GiveDirectly staff were very polite and they taught us well in the meeting that they held with the community members before starting the enrollment process. They were not biased and they advised us to spend our transfers wisely since we were only going to be enrolled only once. Everything went well and I do not see anything that I would recommend to them to change.

We spent most of our recent transfer, that is, approximately KES 48000 on building another house. We decided to do so because the house that we used to live in had grown old and the roof was leaking. We have always been hoping to build another house, but we were not in a position to because we have been struggling with the payment of school fees for the children. So when GiveDirectly came up with this program in our village, we saw the opportunity to finally fulfill our wish. We are thus grateful for this because we now live in a good house that is enough to even accommodate guests visiting our household. With the remaining transfer amount, we sent it to our child in the university for upkeep. We are thus so much grateful to GiveDirectly for the support.

It was around 9:00 pm and I had already retired to bed. My children were still awake doing some home work and revisions and they suddenly got smiling when one of them informed them of the good news. I was awoken by noise from their murmurs and I felt so happy when they shared the good news with me. It could not escape me for once that they were finally going to be able to go to school without me having to worry about where the fee would be from.

Had we not received these transfers then I honestly do not know how our lives would be right now. We were thinking of selling a small piece of land that we own to be able to pay the fee for our children- something that would have driven us even further to poverty. We thank God and I am particularly more happy and grateful that Givedirectly happened to us.

I used almost the entire amount to pay school fees for my two children one in secondary school and the other in college. The total amount that I used to pay fee was approximately KES 45000 and the remaining amount of KES 10000 was used to buy food and other basic household needs. Had I not received this money from Givedirectly then we would probably have our children stay at home or sell the small piece of land that we are staying in to raise the money. I am just so grateful to GiveDirectly for the support they gave us. The casual work that I engage in to gain some income gives so little at times while my husband who would have supported me have extra income has his age catching up with him.