After receiving the funds from GiveDirectly I went ahead and decided to by a goat because I wanted to grow my farm by adding more livestock. Also apart from that, rearing ad breeding the goat could eventually help me out in the future in case I went through a time of financial difficulty then I could always offer them up for market and provide for my family rather than having nothing at all and being in poverty.

Having had some difficulties clearing my childrens' school fees, GiveDirectly offered me a leeway in awarding me the 1st transfer of KES 1200 which I utilised in the forementioned. GiveDirectly later were so considerated in awarding me another transfer of KES 3050, which played a major role in ensuring I was able to offer basic needs to my family as we had some challenges. I split the amount to; KES 1300 for food and KES 1700 for clothes for the family and I am so grateful. GiveDirectly have been a source of great help as they were able to send a further 3rd transfer of KES 3050 which I was able to add onto the food for the household at KES 1800 and later on was able to save KES 1200 for a later use.

My life was slowly leading to a place of hopelessness since my job itself was barely bringing enough, at times I had to watch my kids go to bed hungry and wake up with the same predicament but now the funds allow me to manage financially especially on those days I am not lucky enough to make any money.

I am very grateful to GiveDirectly for coming to our village and choosing to elevate us from extreme poverty especially considering the fact that I am a palm wine tapper and due to the severe drought there is barely enough wine to harvest and I barely earn any money so I am very grateful for the financial assistance.

The on going drought has really affected our village and area especially if you consider the fact that most of us depended on the harvest for our day to day meals since we are subsistence farmers but the lack of rain has led to immense famine and starvation and that is why after I received the money I went ahead and bought a bag of maize flour which contained a dozen packets that sold for KES 1,200. Almost on a daily basis I also bought sardines and fish and since I also had to constantly buy water for domestic use from a different village since my area experienced scarcity where 1 trip which carried six gallons cost me around KES 300 and including the sardines and fish it accumulated to around KES 2,500. In the end I also took care of tuition for my child since they had just been sent home and I paid KES 500.

The money came in almost at around eleven in the morning when I was still home. Honestly I was overjoyed and I literally jumped up and down because at the moment I had no finances and my profession of being a palm wine taper is not only dangerous but also does not bring much income. Also the happiness came about from the mere fact that my daughter would be rejoining school and proceeding with her education.

The ability to enable my daughter to go back to school was very important and quite the big deal to me because seeing her home was definitely eating my mind up and she looked happy as well to be going back to school and that is all a parent could wish for, seeing their child happy.

The money that I recently received was a huge help to me and my family because prior to that my child had been kicked out of school and she had been home for almost three days without us having the ability to get money and send her back. I was scared that my child would miss out on the opportunity to learn while others in school moved on thus leaving her behind. But then as soon as the money came in I paid for half of the tuition which was a thousand kenyan shillings leaving behind a balance of a thousand one hundred and twenty kenyan shillings.