Long before the receipt of the transfers from GiveDirectly, my household was dependent on the small business that I was doing - both from home and sometimes in the immediate shopping center. I used to buy and sell maize and other retail household goods that served the immediate community. Due to the much dependence on the business, we kept spending all profits and sometimes part of the stock, which later got deleted. At the moment, this is a new goal that I am looking forward to re-establishing after spending the transfers on all the projects I had enlisted. I am hopeful that the start will keep me out of debt since the little profit I will be getting will be sufficient to obtain the household goods.

The smooth enrollment, timely receipt of the transfer, and freedom to spend them on all that we needed to spend was a great feeling for me. I am thankful that GiveDirectly chose to give us financial support and left us to decide how to spend them. In my opinion, this was the best decision, and I am sure that every other person within the village appreciated the same. I saw nothing that was done contrary to our expectations as all the pieces of information were clear from the start to the end.

The small business I was so much dependent on when paying school fees and buying household goods crumpled when we delved into it and consume all the stock. Since then life has never been easy as I had to sell out all the livestock I had to meet the school fees demands for my four children. This has also led to a consistent buying of milk from the neighborhood that has been expensive for my family of six. On receiving the second transfer, I spend KES 30000 on buying a lactating dairy cow that brought quite a relief from the high cost of milk. In addition, I saw it as a viable idea to invest in two sheep worth KES 10000 that will serve my future financial obligations as my children further their studies. I hope they will soon produce offsprings that will be sold out at their maturity. I spent the remaining KES 12000 on clothing for my family of six and also foodstuff that we are still using to date. I am grateful for the huge steps I have taken within a very short time after receiving the transfer and hopeful that our living standards will keep improving.

I was at home relaxing after getting back from the farm when I heard my phone vibrating. I requested my child who was at home to help me check the content of the SMS and I became so happy when she informed me that it was a Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I started ululating while dancing thanking God for the blessings that marked a new dawn for my family.

My dream has been to build a more spacious house for my family since the one we were living in was small and we had no privacy, especially when having visitors. I am a subsistence farmer and I mainly plant vegetables and onions and sell them at our nearest town for survival. As a family of six, the income from this activity is usually not enough to cater to our basic needs and pay school fees for our four children on time. Because of this, we had put on hold the process of building a bigger house after acquiring some timber and I am glad that the transfer enabled us to achieve this. We will be moving into this house very soon and I am yearning for the day that I will sleep in it and welcome people to the comfort of my home.

We've been living in a small one-room grass-thatched house and we had no privacy as parents since this house serves us as our kitchen, bedroom as well as living room. This usually made me shy off from welcoming visitors to my house as they can see everything that we own at a glance. When I received my transfer, our priority as a family was to build a more spacious house and we spent KES 25000 to achieve this. I bought all the necessary building materials and paid for the labor and I am glad that we will be moving into this house very soon. Also, I spent KES 10000 to pay school fees for my two children in secondary school to avoid them from being sent back home and invested KES 15000 in dairy farming by purchasing a heifer. I am happy that I now own one despite having sold the one we had last year so that we would be able to pay school fees for our children. Using the remaining KES 5000, I bought some food and clothes for my family.