My next goal is to buy a piece of land where I will build some rentals. Once this is done, I intend to venture into more business since I am an entrepreneur. With this, there will be a guaranteed source of income.

GiveDirectly enrollment allowed each household to make an independent decision about participating in the project and also the best way to spend the received transfers. I was overjoyed to receive a free cash transfer and the freedom to spend it however I saw fit with my family.

Fetching enough water every day from the river which is far away from our village has been so hard. This had been my responsibility all through as my husband is quite busy during the day and my one child is always in school until late in the evening. Ensuring that I avail enough water to enhance our cleanliness and also for home use has been a struggle. Buying water was quite costly as they would sell five jerricans for $30. Upon receiving the second transfer, we agreed with my husband to install tap water in our home. Buying all the materials needed and having it fixed cost us $500. We have two separate shops, one selling foodstuffs and the other one selling clothes and household stuff. In one of the shops, we do Mpesa services. I would say that the income we get from both shops has enabled us to educate our children comfortably and also to cater to other basic needs of the family. For the remaining amount of $50, I obtained foodstuff for my household.

It was in the morning in my normal routine work in the shamba. We were working with my brother at the same shamba. I took a break and checked if I had any calls and messages. The first message that caught my attention was the Mpesa message. As I stared at my phone, my heart skipped a beat and my eyes were filled with tears of joy. I was excited and happy. My brother was standing next to me, trying to understand my excitement. I shared the news with my brother, who could not hide the joy on his face. We left the shamba as we both discussed how I would spend the cash.

The change in terms of expenses incurred on buying water daily is the biggest difference have so far experienced after receiving payment from Give directly. The water tank is the best thing that happened to us, especially with the heavy rains which we have had enough for our household activities and at least sell to our neighbors at KES 10 per 20ltrs jerrican.

Drought has been the biggest challenge faced in my area. Because of the climate changes, water has been scarce and expensive, yet is one of the important aspects of life. Before the rains, I used to spend KES 600 to buy 10 jerricans of water for the household and for the livestock. My husband and I have separate business of selling clothes and groceries. We have been saving to buy a 10,000 ltrs water tank so as to harvest water during this rainy season. As soon as we received the cash, we added KES16000 and bought the tank, which cost us KES 71,000.