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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.
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Enrollment
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Transfers
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Completed
Newsfeed > Peter's Profile
Peter's family
Peter
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Subsistence farming
faceAge:
31
workCampaign
Standard Kenya
There will be no further updates from this completed recipient.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($526 USD)
access_time over 4 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
Having a decent house in my compound is the biggest difference in my life. I am so glad that I can also do all the things that I want like hosting my friends for meetings unlike before when I was living in a dusty mud house. I used to lose the honor of hosting my friends to others in the village who had better houses instead of my old dilapidated grass-thatched house. I am now an equal partner among my group which is what I have been fighting for.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
In my opinion, Give Directly does so well in delivering aid to everyone without any bias in a given village. I think that the idea of giving everyone in the village despite the apparent parities in the economic situation is awesome. I cannot find anything that I would point out for GD to rectify.
What did you spend your second transfer on?
I spent my second transfer on building a house. A descent iron-roofed house has many benefits. It is good to live in, descent when having visitors and good in harvesting rainwater for domestic use. For the first time in a long time, I hosted my friends from my village on the new year's day of the year 2020. We made merry and set out our targets to work on as a group of friends. I was comfortable hosting the meeting here because I had completed the house. I then build a restaurant in a nearby shopping center. It is generating a good income per day that goes a long way in our daily household expanditure.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($529 USD)
access_time almost 5 years ago
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Describe the biggest difference in your daily life.
With GiveDirectly transfers, I have been able to build a new iron roofed house that has made me so proud as a father. For a long time, I have been thinking about constructing a new house that is iron roofed and moving away from the old grass thatched house. This has not been possible to me especially now that I depend almost entirely on casual work to raise income that can help me sustain the needs of my family. Receiving this money was an opportunity for me to put this plan into action and I am so grateful that I have been able to do this.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I received this money at around 4:00 am. I awoke my wife and she was so delighted when I shared the news with her. We got down to planning on how best we were going to spend the money and we did not have any disagreements on how best we could utilize our money. The next morning I went to buy building materials as we embarked on building a new iron roofed house. We are looking forward to buying a water tank using the second transfer and bring to an end the endless menace of fetching water from the river which is sometimes unsafe for human consumption.
What did you spend your first transfer on?
I used part of my second transfer to build a new house, part of the remainder to buy a dairy cow and the remaining amount was used to buy food and other basic household needs. I decided to build a new house with iron roof because the house that I initially lived in was too small and a grass thatched one. It was so embarassing to see my wife headed to the river to fetch dirty water just after the rains subsided while we would have gathered clean water had we been living in an iron roofed house. The menace of drinking dirty water shall now be a thing of the past now that I have completed the new house and we are looking forward to buying a water tank that will help us store clean drinking water all year round.
 
Enrolled
access_time almost 5 years ago
 
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Right now I depend on agri-business as a source of livelihood for my family and I have been having an intention of expanding and venturing myself in a different thing. Now, receiving this money means that I'll be able to start a business of buying young calves, graze them for an extended period of time and then sale them at higher price hence making profit.
What is the happiest part of your day?
The happiest part of my day is in the evening while resting with my family members as we take supper. This is after a long day at my usual casual job of cultivating someone's farm. Later I get paid and head to the market to buy food for my family.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Provision of clean water to my family has been the biggest hardship I have been experiencing. We normally drink untreated water fetched from the village's local dam and most of the time it is not clean since cattle from the village use the dam. Uncouth behaviours from the villagers e.g throwing litter to the dam has also contributed to this. This has brought health issues to my kids which has resulted to frequent visit to the nearby dispensary.