I have eye problems that started way back when I was two years old. I have never taken this as a hindrance for me to achieve my goals. I am a teacher by profession but I have not been lucky to secure a permanent job. My goal for the next two years is to establish a business for my wife so that she can be operating while still looking for a white color job. With this, we can be able to pool our resources together and start planning and achieving bigger plans as a family.

GiveDirectly does well in so many ways. First, they do not discriminate against people living with disabilities by giving them less amount of money rather, they treat everyone equally and with respect, they're non-political, non-religious, and are peace-loving people. I do not see anything that they do not do well.

I started building a permanent house in the year 2017 August when I was still working as a BOM teacher. I would buy the building materials in bits every month but I had to start living in this house before I could complete furnish it. When I received my second transfer, I decided to spend the entire amount to cement the floor. I bought all the necessary materials like ballast, sand, cement, wire mesh and paid for the labor and I am happy that we now live in a more decent house unlike before.

I received the message that had the great news from GiveDirectly when I was on my farm trying to finish up weeding a piece that was remaining. I could not bother checking the content of the message immediately since I was trying to complete the job I had earlier. The celebration from the neighborhood though made me curious as I could distinctly hear one of my neighbors exclaiming that she had received and since we had been expecting money from GiveDirectly, I had to confirm whether the message I received had the same information and indeed I had KES 55000 in my account. I had to call my wife who was out at the school where she had been working as a teacher, inform her, and share the happiness over the phone. I had to continue working as I wait for her and when she finally came home that evening, we revisit our plans and made a few changes before withdrawing on the fourth day as we were still looking for an electrician to help in fixing our solar panel, and making electrical connections in the house.

The biggest difference in my daily life after receiving the first transfer is the joy of clearing all the debts that we had as a household. This has given me the courage to freely interact with the neighbors and the family members who had lent me some amount. It feels good waking up every morning without any fear of having a visitor who has just come that early to collect his debt. I am grateful and hope that such a huge debt will not come to us again going forward.

It has been amazing how expectant we were to receive this first transfer. With my spouse, we laid down plans with the budgeted amount as we already knew the total amount that we were expecting and a rough idea of the current market value of the items we were scouting. On receiving it, we first withdrew KES25000 and spent it on a solar panel, wet battery, and connection cables that came with bulbs. This has changed a lot as we no longer struggle with a lantern lamp that emits a lot of fumes. It has also simplified my wife's lesson preparation every evening, and we are no longer paying to charge our phones with neighbors benefiting too since we are charging theirs for free. I had also been in debts that kept increasing since I have never secured a job since 2018 when I graduated from the college. My wife had been the sole breadwinner, and every time I needed to travel, I had to borrow from my elder brother. I am glad that I cleared the debt of KES 9000 relieving me from the promises I had been giving him each day without honoring. I also obtained a disability card that is always a requirement in the interviews I have attended as a proof of disability bythe Ministry of Education. I finally obtained some pairs of clothes both for my family members and saved the remaining KES4000 to serve any emergencies within the household. I am grateful to GiveDirectly and hoping that the second transfer will facilitate the initiation of the new projects.