We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53010 KES ($358 USD)
access_time 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My goal is to fence my land and establish a poultry project. Although I don't have a specific plan in place at the moment, I am considering starting the poultry project with a few hens, allowing them to multiply over time. I am optimistic that, with patience and effort, I can transform this vision into a reality. In summary, I am grateful for the progress I have made so far.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
The sensitization meetings organized by GiveDirectly were both informative and enlightening. What particularly impressed me was the program's commitment to providing equal empowerment to all beneficiaries. However, I believe that everyone in the village should be considered as long as they have a house within the village.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I am a farmer, and my husband works as a boda boda rider and manages our retail shop. We are blessed with four children. Upon receiving our second transfer, my husband and I made the joint decision to use the entire amount of $550 to restock our shop, which was on the brink of collapse due to a lack of funds. This was because we heavily depended on the shop's income, given the limited earnings from our farming and motorcycle business. As a result, we were able to rejuvenate the shop with our second transfer. We are overjoyed because my husband now manages the shop full-time, and it has become more profitable due to the investment we made in it.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($409 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was taking a nap late in the evening after a tiresome day at the farm. Suddenly, my spouse arrived, waking me up to check my phone for the GD transfers since he had heard from his friends that the money had been sent. Without hesitation, I rushed for my phone and could not believe myself seeing that huge amount in my M-PESA. I was so overjoyed knowing that my dreams will be attained soon.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference is I am now happier knowing that soon I will be having enough milk for my family and extra income from the milk sale to cater for my family's basic needs.
I am also glad that my children can as well play and mingle freely with other kids in my neighbourhood without worries about being laughed at because of their previous poor dressing.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I used $35k to purchase a dairy cow. I have three young kids who depend on milk majorly for food and this is so costly. I am happy that the cow will calve soon and could cut the daily milk expenditure. I will as well sell the surplus to earn an extra income.
My children had been ridiculed by their peers for awhile for wearing old torn clothes, so I spent around $80 to buy them new beautiful clothes.
In addition, I used the remaining amount to buy food for my five family members which was a relief to my spouse who has been the breadwinner
Enrolled
access_time almost 2 years ago
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
We have a lot of great plans from GiveFirectly transfers. On top of our priority list is to buy one dairy cow. Buying this dairy cow shall relieve us of the stress we have had to go through after we were forced to sell the only dairy cow that we owned to clear debts owed to me by a motorcycle selling company that had sold us on credit. After we failed to satisfy both the needs of our family in terms of buying food and paying back the loans owed to us, we did not have any other option except to sell the dairy cow that we owned. I will be one of the happiest people once we get back this dairy cow. It has not been easy meeting all the family's needs including buying milk for family.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Despite the many challenges that we have faced over the last six months, we have not missed to have our happy moments. One of the happiest moments for us as a family over the last six months is the huge harvest that we made from our small farm. For the longest time, we had not made any meaningful harvest from our farm. It is just until recently thag we were able to harvest up to 2 sacks of maize from our farms. This was so satisfying to us as a family especially after a long time of having to buy 2kg tin at $3 up from the previous $1 pee tin. It came as a huge relief for us moreso during these hard economic times.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The challenges that we are currently facing as a family are quite many. It has been tough relying on odd casual jobs to make ends meet. The situation have even been worse with the current weather conditions. Following the recent few days of scorching sun, it has been hard to even get those casual jobs. The subsistence agriculture that we rely on have also not been so profitable. This is largely because of the small acreages of land that we till. This situation left us to rely entirely on my husband who does motorcycle taxi to earn a living. The motorcycle that he uses was bought on credit terms and we had huge balances to clear. My husband could not afford to pay off the debts and at the same time buy us basic household needs. The situation that even got out of hand and we had to finally let go of our one dairy cow that helped us feed the family. This was one of the lowest and challenging moments in our lives. We can only look forward to getting some money and buying at least one dairy cow.
