I am the second of three children, I was lucky to get a chance to go through with education until I completed form four. However things got bleak as my mother is a single mother who was taking care of all her three children and so couldn't pay for me to further my education. I wanted to attend nursing school and become a qualified nurse which I believe would give me a lot of prospects for work. I plan to rear goats which will reproduce and increase in number, I will be able to sell some of them and put myself through school.

I run a small business of buying and selling animals, goats, chicken and even sheep. Apart from my business I am also an animal rearer and using the Givedirectly transfers I have been able to acquire a number of goats. I used $25 in October to buy a goat, and $30 in November. I also used the cash transfers to buy food for myself $6 in October, $4 in November and $16 in December. I used some of my October transfers to get toiletries at $3 and in December got some clothes for myself to wear during the festivities.

I had wanted to pursue a medical related course for my diploma and worked hard and obtained good results to allow me join school. I cleared my KCSE in 2018 but I haven't had a chance to join college since of my financial incapacitation. My mother is my only living parent and she makes charcoal to try support us, however this is not sufficient as to start school I need about $800 upfront before admissions. My mother makes about $20 monthly with presents a huge gap. So I have embarked on animal farming in order to raise the necessary cash for this venture. I hope to have more goats since they procreate fast enough and I can sell them and save towards going to school.

I sell animals at the market, I buy from some sellers and sell to other sellers. I have done this business a while and I like the experience. I have wanted to rear my own animals to increase my profit gaps and so I have been dedicating my cash transfers from Givedirectly to purchase kid goats. I spend $25 monthly on a goat and use the rest to buy food for myself and my family. This is how my monthly spendings have looked for the past half year.

As an orphan who solely depends on a jobless mother, I have always thought of putting more effort to ease my academic pursuit. With the monthly transfers, I hope to succeed in raising my college fees. I will be setting up part of my transfers to build my savings. However, part of it I shall invest in poultry farming to give an edge to raise sufficient fees. Consequently, my struggles will be less in comparison to how they would have been if I was not a GiveDirectly beneficiary.

When I received my recent transfer, I used to spend $25 to buy a goat. From childhood, I had longed to raise a herd of goats. I began this venture last year before my enrollment in GiveDirectly's program. I am glad that I have eleven goats now. I aim to continue raising them since they will later help in raising my college fee, as I pursue a course in nursing. I spent the rest of $9 on food to supplement the needs of our four-member family. I did so since my mother's income is low to support our family because she is a widow who burns charcoal to earn a living.

My goal of enrolling in a nursing program will be realized. I graduated from high school in 2018, but my mother, who is the only wage earner, was unable to pay the tuition, thus I was unable to enroll in college. Although she is currently too elderly to do it, she burns charcoal for sale. Thank God GiveDirectly brought back my faded hopes. To do this, I want to buy additional goats with the upcoming transfers in addition to the seven I already had with the prior ones. They multiply monthly, increasing their profitability. I'm hoping that by the end of the year, I'll have more of them, enough to pay for my college expenditures for the three years that I'll be there.

After completing my secondary education, I was unfortunate not to be able to enroll in college and pursue a course in nursing, which has long been my ideal career. My parents, who paid for my schooling, burn charcoal for sale, but the money they make from it is insufficient to meet our needs as a family. As a result, when my parents couldn't afford to enroll him in school, my follower was forced to drop out of primary school. I eventually gave up on pursuing my goal of becoming a nurse. God bless GiveDirectly for saving me. In order to raise money for college expenses, I have consequently purchased three goats for $75 to raise over the next three months utilizing transfers from the previous three months. Since I started getting the transfers, I have so far purchased seven goats with the intention of buying 10 more by the end of the year. Since they have newborns every year, I'm sure I'll have enough money saved up by the time I enroll in the course the following year. With $27 left over, I bought food for our family.

When I got enrolled in the support program, I started the business of rearing livestock and selling them. It has disciplined me to have the same expenditure every month for the last four months. I use $20 to buy goats and the remaining to buy food for my family of three members. After I completed my high school education, I developed an interest in nursing but because of financial constraints, have not enrolled in the course yet. Recently, I researched and found out that the nursing tuition fee is $500 per semester. The livestock rearing business is a prospect in raising the cash and I plan to continue increasing the number of goats every month as I save on my tuition fee.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does so well in alleviating poverty by offering financial support to the most impoverished community. As a result of the transfer, many community members have begun to experience hope and those who were unable to work on their career goals are now reconsidering doing so. In addition, some community members who could not afford food can currently find it easier to get food for their family members. So far, I have not yet observed what GiveDirectly does not do well.

From my transfer, I spent KES 2500 to buy a goat. As a young man, I have been longing to raise livestock. I had already begun the venture by buying 1 goat when I sold my chicken last year. I am also glad that with the first transfer, I was able to buy an additional goat, and currently, I own 3 goats. I am very optimistic that when they reproduce and increase in number, I shall be able to sell them to start up a shop business. From the business, I shall be able to raise the daily income for my family. Since we are a family of 4 and my mother is just but a peasant farmer, I opted to support her by buying foodstuff.

It was at night when I was preparing to go to bed. I was drained in my financial thoughts and kept wondering if I was eligible for the GiveDirectly funds. All of a sudden I saw a message that elated me at that moment it was thrilling that my thoughts were confirmed with an actual message of funds received.I was so happy because I least expected it.

The difference is as my objectives and goals changed because of my financial constraints, I have a plan on venturing livestock business and would like to specialise on the chicken and goats rearing because they reproduce easily and it is not so hard to feed and maintain them.I plan to use the revenue earned from my business and the rest of the funds to enroll in a nursing school which is my initial goal and career.

Being the firstborn in a family of two children and raised by a single mother who works as a charcoal burner has been a challenge,which has affected my personal goals and objectives in life.My mother has worked hard since my father died and atleast made sure that we finished our secondary education.She makes KES 1000 on a good week when she has sold one bag of charcoal. Due to inconsistency of the income expected from my mother I spent my KES 400 to buy atleast 2 packets of 2kg maize flour and 3kg of beans which would last us for the next three days.In the back of my mind I was set to start my chicken rearing business hence used the rest of KES 800 and bought two chicken as future investment.