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.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
The moment when i received my money i was overwhelmed with joy happy because it was first time for me to receive such amount of aid and the money was enough to end the problems i had
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life since i started receiving payments is that now i am able to get most of my basic needs such as food, clothes and good shelter
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent my transfer on 2 bags of fertilizer at MK32000 each, 4 bags of maize at MK10000 each, 10 iron sheets at MK5000 each, clothes and kitchen utensils at MK32000 and 9 bags of cement at 6000 each and saved some amount
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
The money will be meant buying iron sheets and food.
Mostly I depend much on selling and making charcoal for a living. At the end of the month, I make K30000. I usually use the money to buy food and other household expenses such as clothes and shoes.
I have a piece of land that I usually farm for household consumption. That piece of land is fertilizer is applied we harvest 15 bags of maize but since we do not apply fertilizer we only harvest 6 bags. Those bags are consumed within 6 months. That meant we have to source for extra 8 bags of maize to reach the next harvesting perion.
The money that we make per month is not enough to enable us to buy iron sheets even though if we wanted to buy one sheet a month. Therefore, I will use the money to buy iron sheets
What is the happiest part of your day?
The past six months we got a message that our elderest son was selected to continue his secondary education in Mangochi secondary school. That bought us joy as it was first in my family.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The Challenge that I am facing currently is lack of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and proper seeds. If farming was cheap and reasonable we would have been built an iron roofed house by now.
