Since I have bought all the construction materials with the second transfer. Now I am planning to build a house for my teenage sons before schools reopen. I am also planning to save towards school fees payment before schools reopen.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly has brought enlightenment to most people in our village. This is because with the transfers some people who had grass-thatched houses have put up Iron roofed houses. Others whose kids who were in and out of school due to school fees arrears have now cleared school fees.

For the past 7 years, I have worked as a tractor driver on a contractual basis. My income on a good day is up to KES 1,000 and KES 5,000 in a week. This helped me in the purchase of dairy cows which I later sold for a seven-eight piece of land about 3 years ago. Secondly, my job has also enabled me to pay part of the admission and school fees for my son who recently joined high school. At first, I was kinda worried about the school fees because this is my firstborn but GiveDirectly came right on time and I felt a sense of relief. I, therefore, spent KES 13,000 of the transfer on clearance of school fees arrears for my son. Thirdly, I spent KES 15,000 on 20 Iron sheets. This will enable me to build a better and more spacious house for my teen sons. This is because currently, they are living in a tiny six Iron roofed house that is not conducive for them. In addition, I bought the latest clothing fashion for KES 10,000. This is because buying clothes for me is a luxury because at the moment my focus is school fees and food. Lastly, I cleared a debt using KES 5,000. I also bought two bags of maize at KES 6400. This is enough to feed my family for one month. This will help reduce household expenditure hence increasing my savings.

It was around 9 am and I was preparing myself to go to the farm to weed some maize when I heard my phone ringing in my pocket to notify me of a new message. I decided to check it and I was surprised when I saw that I had received the long-awaited money that GiveDirectly had promised us. I couldn't hide the joy that I felt and I immediately informed my wife the good news. She was so happy to hear it and we celebrated together as we talked about how the money is going to liberate us from the many challenges that we were facing at the time due to lack of money.

The transfer has brought a very big difference in our lives as a family. We were able to clear school fees arrears for our children and hence we no longer worry about them being sent home due to arrears. We were also able to buy food with some of the money and hence our children now have enough to eat. They no longer have to go back to school hungry whenever they don't find lunch at home. Apart from the above, we were also able to buy some iron sheets that we plan to use in constructing a house for my teenage boys. This way they will no longer have to spend the night in their friend's homesteads and they will have a place of their own where they can sleep and study without interruptions.

We spent most of the money that we got from GiveDirectly on paying school fees for our children. This has been quite hard for us to achieve due to lack of money and this has resulted to our children being sent home most of the time due to failure to clear the arrears. My wife and I depend on casual labor to earn a living. The little money that we make, most of it usually goes to the purchase of food.