I no longer have worries nor stress about being able to provide food, education for my children, shelter and access to water because of the transfer I received from GiveDirectly. I used to sell charcoal to earn a living and this source of income was not enough to cater for our living expenses. I was very much worried especially about where I would get money to educate my daughter who is in class 6. With the transfer that I received, I purchased a water tank which can hold 300 liters of water; this assures me of water security to my family since we are living far from the water points. I also managed to construct some pillars for my existing house to make it firm. Before, our house was somehow unstable because the poles were destroyed by termites.. I am very grateful to GiveDirectly.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly has done well sending us some money that have improved our lives greatly and I believe it will do well too it the other areas it will be operating from. As a village, we have decent houses and fed our families. There isn't anything that GiveDirectly has not done well.

Lack of a reliable source of income has been a major challenge in my family thus impacting a lot of stress in me. I used to sell charcoals for a living. The process of making the charcoals is very tiresome and due to my old age it was a big challenge. I spent the money I received in buying hard corals which cost KES 7500.00, 10 bags of cement for KES 6000.00; I also paid school fees for my class daughter KES 5000.00 and also paid KES 14000.00 for labour to the constructors. I decided to save the rest and am planning on how I can use them in floor making as well as for food.

I learned that Ib had received my first transfer at exactly 8 in the morning when I was from the dam together with my helper. I was so happy and to date, I feel it's a dream to me. Receiving such a huge amount of money which is non-refundable was a miracle it has never happened in my life. Therefore I was certain my daughter will study without any distances like before

The biggest difference in my daily life is that the transfers empowered me to send my daughter to school. In the last few weeks, she has been staying home because of the fee arrears that had accumulated for months. This has been demoralizing her and I as a parent but then I had no option because I had no assets that I could seel to cater to her education. I depended on the odd jobs which on a productive day, I could earn KES 200 which was still not enough for their daily upkeep leave alone the fees. Therefore paying her fees on time has always been a challenge and at times she used to say that someday she would drop out of school and seek some casual jobs. This was really breaking me because my dream was for her to get a good education that will change her future and her generation in particular. GiveGirectly made this happen because manage to snd her to school and I also bought few goats that will still facilitate her education journey.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying some building poles, iron sheets, nails, and timber. This was for the renovation of my house since it was in critical condition and very small. In every rainy season, it was so hectic because I had to seek shelter from my friends who were somehow far away from the village. Also, I paid school fees for my daughter who is still in primary school. In addition, I bought livestock more so goats, which are now the assets that I am leaning on. With the remaining amount of money, I bought enough food for my family.