Before the transfers, I would struggle to meet my family needs. My family used to depend on my small income from driving work which was not much. In most cases, I would have to take a loan from my boss which was not really giving a good picture as an employee. I did not know what to do and use the only option I had. Since I started receiving these transfers, I have always used it wisely to first pay back all my debts and right now, I am able to meet my family needs well and in time. Without the transfers, I would still be struggling and my children would not be studying in peace as they are now. meet

My new goal for the transfers is to save for starting up a business. Currently, I am employed I transport business as a driver but due to the nature of the work, at times am out of work when the car breaks down. On such days, I do not have any kind of income which burdens me with provision for the family. This is why I have chosen to start a business which will sustain my needs since it is constant.

I spent my transfer on buying food for the family. We had run out of food in the house. We used most of our stock during the festive season. The little money I had left, I used on buying school requirements for my children when reporting back to school for the first term of the year.

At the moment, I am comfortably able to take care of my needs, pay my bills on time and still make some little savings. This is because the money I receive monthly supplements my little income to make all these possible. Other than the monthly transfers, I also get some little extra income from the clothes business that I recently started which has made my life a lot better compared to what it was before.

I had a plan of purchasing my own motorcycle as I am currently using a hired one at a daily fee of 500KES which is very costly for the taxi business that I run. This, however, has become tough because I am not able to make enough savings, and from my calculations, the program might even end before I achieve this goal. So I decided to start another business on second-hand clothes which was within the savings I had already made. My aim is to increase my daily savings from the business as well as the motorcycle business so that I can eventually realize my dream of purchasing my own motorcycle.

I gave the whole amount I recently received together with some of my savings to my mother who had an emergency to help her deal with the problem. She was in a very tough financial situation and needed immediate help, so I decided to forego my plans to assist her.

Currently, my life is different from how it was in that I pay my rent easily. I can even save some amount for my ultimate goal which is to buy my own motorcycle that will enable me to work for myself. I am also glad because I have been able to take care of emergencies easily. Recently I was able to refill my gas which got finished abruptly. Thanks to GiveDirectly.

My new goal is to buy a motorcycle. Currently, I work for someone but I would like to have my own after a long time of experience. I normally have to pay my employer whether I have money or not which is normally a constant fee of 500 KES. I know that if I have my own, I will be able to get more money hence I will be able to take care of my needs easily.

I spent part of my transfer to pay rent. Previously I could use my salary to pay rent but it has never been easy. Today, I can save part of my transfer which I used to set aside for rent. I also did shopping of foodstuffs like sugar and refilled my gas. The gas got finished and I am glad that the money was sent at the right time which made me take care of the emergency on time. Thanks to GiveDirectly.

My goals now that I have started receiving the money is to open a restaurant. Since its starting cost is a bit higher, I am planning to save my income after I am employed as a driver so that I will use the money to start this business. I will also be saving part of my transfers so that I will also use it when starting my business. I will then use the money I will be getting from my job to cater for my family needs and use the ones I will be getting from the business to pay school fees for my children and investing more.

The biggest difference in my daily life since I started receiving payments from GiveDirectly is that I can now save some money from my daily hustles unlike before. This is because I have been able to start a small business of selling shirts in the evening after I am done with my work. Though the money I get from it is little, it has positively impacted my life from how it was four months ago.

I am planning to do a driving course so that I can own a driving license. Since I do not have money to use in paying for it, I decided to save my most recent transfer so that I can use it together with my next transfer to pay for it. I settled on doing a driving course since I did not finish my high school education hence I cannot do another course without having a secondary school certificate. I will look for a job after completing my studies so that it will act as my source of income. This will help me earn an income which will be enough to cater for my family needs.

I was thrilled with happiness the moment I started receiving my money because I knew that I would be able to achieve most of the goals using this money.