I now have two female calves that I purchased with GiveDirectly transfers. My hope is that in a year's time, they will have multiplied by giving birth to more calves, and I will finally be able to milk them. This way, I won't be required to purchase milk for my family, and I'll have a business opportunity through selling the rest of the liters of milk to our neighbors, generating us money to pay school fees for our children with no too much difficulty.

GiveDirectly has made a difference in my life. I've accomplished things I didn't think I'd be able to do anytime soon. I now have a solar panel that provides energy to our home at a low cost. This has made us feel connected to the community and the country at large, through our mobile phones, where we are reachable unlike before, and also because we have a radio, which allows us to get information about what is going on in the country. It has also spared us from the costly cost of kerosene, which is what we previously used; we were occasionally left in the dark due to the fact that we did not have enough money to buy kerosene. People in our community have advanced as well. This is evident in the fact that people have built better houses, that those who were struggling to pay school fees have paid them all this time, and that those who did not have cows have purchased one or two through the transfers. As a result, I'd like to express our gratitude to GiveDirectly for having affected our lives in various ways.

I paid $13 for a female calf that I feel will provide money in the near future. I was overjoyed to acquire our own cow since in our location, having to buy milk from the neighbors demonstrates a greater case in point of poverty, and so this protected us from this embarrassment. The tansfer provided me with the chance to build an extra room for hosting my visitors. Previously, I had only one room that served as both a sitting room and a bedroom at the same time, making it small and devoid of privacy. After finishing the house for a total of $24 on everything, I felt confident in hosting anyone. Finally, I could not have spent the transfer in all of those ways if I had not purchased food. We tried our best the previous year to try farming, but we did not have as much as anticipated, resulting in a shortage, so we had to work extra hard on our casual jobs to help us financially. We did not use any fertilizer when growing the crops because we did not have enough money to buy the fetilizers, so we decided to plant it without. This year, I am pleased to have used fertilizers, and we anticipate a better harvest than last year.

I received a message around 5 p.m., while the sender was not specified, the indication on the amount received matched the anticipated transfer that GiveDirectly had promised us. I was at my sister's house in a different village at the time, which had already received the transfer. When I told her the news, she confirmed it by mentioning the source name mentioned in the message and assuring me that the system used by GiveDirectly in all their transfers is Segovia, not GiveDirectly as I expected. I was unable to collect the money on the same day because I had to return home the next day, align on my enlisted items to spend on, and collect later when I was ready.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the investment in better lighting equipment that I am now using. My children can now enjoy a better reading space in their room because the room is now well lit. I am grateful for the support and hope to do more with the second transfer.

I am a single mother of two and had been working hard on casual labor and subsistence farming on a small piece of land owned by my parents to make ends meet. Since they could not live without a glass of milk, the cost of buying milk for my two children has been overwhelming. Even though I had a cow, the dry seasons were difficult, so I decided to purchase another heifer with the $220 from the first transfer. I also spent $80 on a sack of maize, which we are still using for food at the moment. I also needed better lighting in my home, so I spent $95 on a wet battery that I later connected to the solar panel to facilitate charging and lighting all of our rooms. I am relieved that I no longer have to charge the emergency rechargeable lamps that I was previously using. The remainder was spent on clothing for my children and a portion on Christmas festivities.