In the coming year and beyond my focus shall be to improve my dairy keeping work. I plan to do this by not only planting more fodder but also improving the breed of my cows. I right now have one dairy cow that is of a lower breed and a small piece of land where I have planted fodder. In the next one year and beyond, I hope to have one extra cow and to have put more land under fodder and other animal feeds. This will greatly improve the living standards of my family and give me an opportunity to practice other forms of income generating activities. I have just one of my children with her two children who look up to me for daily needs and this will make it easier for me to achieve my goals going into the future.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does very well by conducting their enrollment excercises in the most transparent manner possible. They do this without any form of bias whatsoever. Giving cash as a form of support makes it easier for people to choose what they are most comfortable with. Looking at the dairy cow that I bought and the immediate medical attention that my son got because of these transfers makes me very happy. That freedom to choose was everything to me. On the other hand, I feel that GiveDirectly should be more keen to make sure that no person who is deserving is excluded in their program. A case in point is my daughter who was left unregistered and yet I felt she needed to have benefitted from the program as well. I am however very grateful that I got to receive the transfer and for the help it gave me and my family.

When we received our second transfer of $5500, we used $250 to clear debts owed to us as a family. This is money that had been borrowed from a relative and which was used to pay school fees for our children. The debts had stayed for a long time before we could clear and we thought this was a perfect opportunity to clear the debts. We are so happy that we have finally cleared the debts. Had we not received GiveDirectly transfers then we would not have been able to clear the debts yet. We used another $150 to seek medical treatment for our child who fell sick shortly before we received the transfer. The transfer became so much helpful to us at a time that we would have been helpless as a family. We had tried taking our child to local dispensary which did not bore much fruits and it is only through GiveDirectly transfers that we were able to get a lasting solution for our child. We are so happy that he has recovered fully and already going about his normal work. We normally rely on small business to make income which gives us hardly enough to buy food and meet other basic household needs.

It was a quarter past 7 in the morning while waking up. That's when I heard a message alert on my phone, on checking I confirmed to have received KES 55,000 from GiveDirectly. I was very happy and immediately informed my husband and kids of the good news. We celebrated and planned on how to spend it.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the purchase of a water tank. This has relieved me of the burdens of carrying water and now I can now fully concentrate on my garden and dairy farming. Initially, I used to think twice before going to the river because it caused me a lot of back pain and leg pain but these are no more. I am now very happy because I have been carrying water on my back for the longest time. Secondly, my garden is now well secured with the barbed wire fence bought using the transfers. As a result, I don't have to worry about fruits and vegetables whenever I am away from home. My only concern now is buying an additional dairy cow.

I am 62 years old and have been ferrying water on my back for the past 45 years until GiveDirectly came to my aid. This was very tiresome because I used to make four trips in a day, two in the morning and two in the evening. Especially during dry spells, I was forced to fetch water from a river two kilometers away from home. This caused a lot of back and leg pains. Therefore, when I received the transfers my priority was a water tank. I, therefore, spent KES 25,000 on a 3,000 liters water tank. As we speak it's now full to the brim after the recent rains and this helps majorly in household consumption and domestic use. Additionally, I no longer go to the river and I am relieved of back pains. For the past five years, I had desired to buy one but couldn't afford it due to school fees burdens. Secondly, I spent KES 15,000 on the purchase and installation of a barbed-wire fence to secure my fruits and vegetable garden which is my main income source. This is because I have been using a natural fence that was easily torn down by livestock. Thirdly, I spent KES 5,000 on the payment of school fees for my granddaughter in high school. This is because her parents live far away, therefore, were not privileged to get the transfers. For the rest, I spent KES 3,000 on a bag of maize food and other household items. This has helped to sustain my family because hunger is a major threat in our place.