With my passion for education, I do desire that all my children attend good schools. I have 11 children, and raising them has not been easy, so I had to buy goats with my first transfer, which I believe will multiply in numbers, thus shielding me from too many struggles in raising school fees come next year, when my three children will be entering high school. I will just sell them at a very good price in the market and use the money on them.

GiveDirectly did well in giving us the amount in cash since we do not share the same challenges in life. In our village, people have been empowered differently, and for me, I have achieved 70% of what I have always wanted. For example, having tap water at my doorstep and livestock was made possible with the first transfer, and now I have cleared all the school fee arrears. My life has been turned around, and from here on, I will work hard to ensure that I keep pushing forward financially so as to maintain this status quo.

I was languishing in debt, and this state was killing me inside. I couldn't even explain to my children how tough things were, but I kept hoping for the best. When GiveDirectly came in, this felt like an answered prayer. I paid $40, which I owe the school where my two daughters are studying. I have been going there just to negotiate for more time, and yes, the time has come. I couldn't hold back my joy as I narrated where the money had come from to the headteacher, who has supported my daughters. I also had to buy food in plenty here at home, which would last us for 2 months and even more. This took $10 of the transfers, and as we speak, we are happy as a family once more, which has been a rare thing of late. We used the remaining amount of the transfers to do farming on our two acres of land where we planted maize, and now we are patiently waiting for the harvest time to come as we take care of them as expected.

I was in the bush alone collecting firewood in preparation for dinner for the family. I still remember it was around 5 p.m. when I received a loud message alert on my mobile phone. Being illiterate, I could not understand its content. After about an hour, I reached home and decide to give the phone to the helper to interpret them. I felt extremely happy and thanked God when she finally revealed that I had received the transfer. We together celebrated the cash aid that meant a lot of transformation in our living standards.

The fact that I am currently enjoying peace of mind is the biggest difference. At the moment, my kids are learning without any challenge unlike before when they were spending most of their time at home due to school fees arrears. In addition, we can get our daily meals without having to skip them or spend an entire day without food.

With a family of 13 members that are 11 children, I and my spouse meeting the family's basic have been a great challenge owing to the fact that we are all jobless. The casual job of charcoal vending is what we depend on to raise the family. The aid from Givedirectly was a great relief to our financial burden. After receiving the transfer, I spent $140 of it to support the education of our 9 kids who are both in primary and secondary school. They had a huge fee arrears that were making them to be out of school most of the time something that bothers my heart. Nowadays, I am happy and relieved that they are continuing with their studies without being discontinued. In addition, I used $120 to start a goat rearing by purchasing 4 goats as a future investment for the kids. I will be selling them once they multiply to further their education. Furthermore, I bought proper bedding for the kids since they were spending their nights on the floor with rags. Lastly, I used the remaining amount to start the process of connecting tap water to our home.