My new goal is to be able to raise enough money through savings plan that we recently started. Having bought a dairy cow the money that we used to buy milk was diverted into a merry go round kitty and once this savings plan is complete, I will have amount exceeding KES 20000. Our plan is to use this money to buy an additional piece of land since the one we are currently staying in is too small. This shall result in more advanced farming and definitely a rise in income for us as a family and general improvements of our living standards as well.

The fact that the money given to us was not a loan but a grant was a good thing from GiveDirectly. This gave us the freedom to plan and utilize the money on things that we were comfortable with and without any worries whatsoever. The training that we received too from the officers before receiving the transfer contributed in the transfer safety and any other monies that we may have in our accounts. According to me, there was nothing that I thought GiveDirectly could or should improve. Everything was just perfect.

We used KES 32000 to buy a dairy cow and bought two goats at KES 10000. The amount that remained was used to buy clothes for my children and other basic household needs for our family. We owned one dairy cow and we would often end up without milk sometime within the year. Buying milk had proven to be very costly and with the current economic times, we thought it wise to buy one extra dairy cow. I normally do grocery business while my husband is a tailor and the Mount of money we make each day is barely enough to feed our family.We have four children who are at their primary level of education and part of the investments we are making is to make sure that we have saved enough towards payment of their secondary school fees.

It was in the evening at around 4 pm and my mother-in-law and I was on our way back home from a certain household that we had gone to offer our condolences to. Suddenly, I heard a new message alert on my phone and I checked what it was all about. I was so happy when I read the contents which was saying that I had received KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I shared the good news with my mother-in-law who was also so happy about it. I then immediately called my husband and he was so happy too when I told him what had transpired.

The biggest difference that the transfer has brought into our lives is that we no longer incur a lot of costs buying food. Maize and milk are the food items that we mostly buy. We managed to buy a bag of maize with part of the transfer that is going to sustain us for a while. The cow that we bought is about to calve and when it does, we will be able to get enough milk for our consumption, and hence we will no longer buy it.

We spent KES 30000 of the recent transfer on buying a cow. We decided to buy it because we didn't have a source of milk and hence the children lacked enough milk for their consumption. We thus usually incur the cost of buying milk where we usually buy two liters daily at KES 40 per liter. We also bought some trees at a total cost of KES 10000. We bought the trees because we want to build another house that is roofed with iron sheets and bigger. We only have one small grass-thatched house. The space is not enough for the six of us and the grass for roofing usually gets destroyed by some insects. We are hence usually forced to replace it from time to time. We were not able to do the above before because we did not have the money. I usually grow vegetables and sell them. My husband on the other end is a tailor. The money that we make is not much and most of it usually goes to the purchase of food for our consumption. With the remaining transfer, we used it in buying a bag of maize for consumption, some clothes for the children, and some utensils. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for supporting us.