The income from selling chapati's in a nearby center could barely support my family's basic need such as food . At times , we would miss meals when I had taken debts all over the village from friends and some relatives without settling them on time and I was left with no where to go . I used to empathize with myself and had the feeling of being a disappointment to my children . My life is different since I have been able to take care of my five children's school fees arrears with the transfer . On the other hand , I am glad that my children can afford three meals in a day which sounded as an luxury before .

In my opinion , GiveDirectly did well in terms of helping so many poor people with the money and the decision to spent it relied on them . The idea of conducting door to door visits enhanced transparency because any household that consented to the project were visited thereafter enrolled .They were also dealing with people directly without involving other people like government sector.

I spent a larger part of my second transfer to buy a dairy cow 25,000 KES . I bought building material such as iron sheets ,an wooden door that were used to complete the construction of the toilet I had started constructed earlier with my savings . The remaining I bought food for my family's consumption and paid workers who assisted me to weed my farm .

The biggest difference in my daily life is the basic fact that I am a proud owner of oxen! Being a farmer, for a long time I have always longed to have these oxen but because of the financial hindrance, I couldn't. This was until luck came to us in the form of GiveDirectly. The oxen help me in various ways; First, they help me plough my farm which for a long time I have been ploughing using my own land. This apart from being such tedious work, it also used to take a long period of time to complete ploughing the piece. This sometimes forced me to plant late and it led to low productivity. With the ability to prepare my land early for planting, I am hopeful that there will be an increased harvest this time around. The oxen will also be a source of income since I will be hiring them out of my friends and village mate for land plowing. The proceeds thereof will help me meet my family's basic needs with less difficulty.

It was around 7 Am and I was busy cooking breakfast for my family and the usual morning chores when my eldest son broke the news that I had received some money from GiveDirectly. I could not believe this at first and I thought that he was probably lying until I confirmed it myself. I got so excited and immediately knew that my life will surely change for the better!

I am a farmer and I have always wanted to improve the scope of farming. Therefore, I spent part of my first transfer on a pair of oxen and some goats for rearing. I have always wanted to buy these but I was not in a position to afford them and when this opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it. The reproduction rate of goats is generally high and this was why I decided to buy them. I also bought some building materials such as bricks and iron sheets to construct a pit latrine. We previously did not have a decent pit latrine and we sometimes relieved ourselves in the bushes. This led to increased cases of cholera and other hygiene-related diseases. I also spent part of the transfers on my children's school fees and new pairs of school uniforms. I am glad that they can now study more comfortably and minimal disturbance as compared to the period when they used to send home frequently for unpaid school fees. I bought food and other household items using the rest of the transfers and I am happy that my children have enough food to eat before embarking their school day. This was not the case before because they were sometimes forced to go to school on empty stomachs for lack or little food.