The goal that I have now is to save some money from the sales of my farm produce to start poultry keeping business. This will be my additional source of income because I will be selling the eggs. I am looking forward to starting this soon.

GiveDirectly does well in that it has enabled most people to build better and more spacious houses which were so hard to do before. I am so grateful too because I know own a cow. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well.

I spent $300 on purchasing a heifer. This is because I always buy milk daily and this is so costly for me because I do not have a steady source of income. I spent $13 per month on milk. I rely on small-scale farming, I plant vegetables and potatoes and I sell the produce at the market to earn some income to meet all these basic needs. I was not in a position to save since I had no extra money. I am so happy because when my heifer gives birth I will get enough milk for the family and even sell the surplus to earn some money. I will spent the money to pay school fees for my children and meet other basic needs. The remaining amount of money I spent on food, clothes and household items that we were missing at home. I am so grateful because GiveDirectly has changed my living standard.

I was in our living room relaxing after taking dinner when I heard my phone ringing in the bedroom. I quickly rushed to check and know if it was my spouse checking upon us. When I saw the Mpesa message, my happiness doubled as I read it over and over again. I then called my spouse to inform him about the good news after whispering a word of prayer to thank God for the blessings that had just come in.

My husband works as a security officer in Nairobi and he is the breadwinner to our family since I am only a housewife. It had always been my dream to own a dairy cow like other people in my village but this had not been possible since he does not earn well. Due to this, we always exhaust all of his salaries in paying school fees for our daughter, paying for his house rent, food and transport while at work. With my recent transfer, I was able to acquire a heifer and this has made my daily life different. This is because I always have to work extra hard feeding it knowing that it is an investment that will come in handy when it reproduces as it is beneficial in so many ways. First, I will be able to save the money that we would otherwise use in buying milk, and apart from my family getting milk for consumption, I will be using income from the sale of milk to meet our daily needs. In addition, I can easily sell a heifer and use the money in paying school fees for my children when faced with financial challenges.

When I received my transfer, I spent KES 20000 to buy a heifer, KES 15000 to buy three sets of seats, and used the remaining KES 11000 on food and clothes after using KES 8000 to pay school fees for my daughter in boarding school. We settled on the heifer as a family since buying milk has been our routine and we've always spent KES 1000 monthly on them. As a housewife, the money that my spouse gets from his job as a security officer is not always enough to cater to all our needs ranging from paying school fees for my daughter, catering for our basic needs as well as paying for his rent and transport. I am glad that when these heifer calves, we will get enough milk for consumption and sale to earn income that will be used to meet some of our needs.