They say change is inavitable but that seemed impossible in the community that I belong to due to high levels of poverty. What GiveDirectly does well is giving hope, inspiring and empowering the most poorest through the unconditional cash transfers.

I started poultry farming business while in high school to help my parents with paying school fees. Through the profits that I was earning, I was able to clear my high school fees. During COVID-19 pandemic, my father who was then working as a teacher got laid off since he was not employed by government but parents board. When schools reopened, I had to sell all the chicken that I had to clear school fees for me to be allowed to sit for my final exams. Although this was a good business, I had lost hope in it because, having just graduated from high school, I had no source of income to be able to start over again. When I received my first transfer, I bought some some few chicken and some feeds and started rearing them. With the recent transfers, I bought 10 small sized chicken worth KES 1000 and spend KES 2000 to buy feeds and other maintenance inputs. I'm looking forward to continuing adding more chicken and I'm hopeful that the business will grow and I'll be able to pay my college fees and assist my parents in paying school fees for my six siblings.

That morning I received the message I was very busy cleaning up the compound when I found out that GiveDirectly had actually come through with their promise of financial assistance. I was honestly excited because before I received the message there was so much propaganda going on in the village that this program was nothing but a hoax which had began instilling some doubt in my mind but eventually we were all proven wrong in the best way.

Through the funds I managed to cater for some of the important goals I had like getting feed for the chicken since this project meant so much to me and the feed was so helpful because you can only imagine that as of now I am left with thirty hens since I sold twenty of them during the holiday. This in turn made me a profit of KES 18,700 which has helped me to pay my fees and that of my siblings this term.

Before being involved with GiveDirectly and this program I had began my own project where I reared chicken to maturity then later sold them. The reason as to why I decided to start this project was the fact that my father was a retired lecturer and my mother had no job which led to some financial strains for me and my siblings so through the project I would manage to assist my family economically. Therefore after I received the money I went ahead and bought chicken troughs and other material in order to feed the hen which cost me KES 500 and then used KES 500 to buy chicken feed so that to take care of their nutrition as I left my mother in charge of them when I left for school. The remaining KES 200 I used it as fare to and fro to acquire the materials mentioned above.