I had been operating a business selling dry fish at our nearby market centres 3 years ago. Because of financial challenges, I was forced to close down the business. Since then, I have been doing temporary casual activities to support a family that does not earn me enough income. My goal this year is to restart my business to have a reliable source of livelihood for the family.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well in coming to our village and enrolling every eligible household into the program. The decision to send direct cash to poor people instead of material aid was a great one. I recommend if possible they return to our village and support us again with cash targeting starting small businesses.

I have been living in an old, mud-walled, 4 roomed house with my spouse and seven children for over three years. It had started leaking because of the rusty iron roof. We had desired to renovate it by putting on a new roof top but our efforts were futile because of the poverty condition in our family. After receiving the recent transfer, I spent a larger portion to purchase new iron sheets, timbers, nails and paid the labour cost. Currently, we are now content to reside in a better-condition house unlike before. In addition, my 4 kids are still schooling, both in primary and secondary. I spent $200 of the remaining amount to pay school fees for the fourth born who is in form 3. Nowadays, I am glad that he is able to attend classes continuously without any interruption due to fee arrears. Lastly, I used the remaining part to acquire new uniforms for the 3 small children who are in primary school. Earlier, they were wearing old and torn uniforms while going to school something that was lowering their confidence.

It was around 9 in the morning when I had already gone to my farm which is just 1km away from my homestead. Suddenly my phone started vibrating, and without wasting time I decided to read the message. I was shocked and happy beyond measures when I realized it was an Mpesa message from Segovia Technology I knew I would achieve most of my goals through the transfers. I decided to go back and inform all my family members and I remember we held a special prayer and thanked God for this favour.

The biggest difference in my daily life that I will always mention is the fact that I renovated my house. The house that was initially my shelter was in a bad state, its roof was dilapidated and leaking during the rainy seasons. I always feared it could fall anytime and cause some damage. With my seven family members, some had to shelter at their friend's houses which have been so stressful. The cold nights were also another big issue since my children were always in and out of the hospital due to pneumonia which was a result of the bad condition of the house. I had no hopes of renovating it anytime soon becasue only depended on my spouse who is relies on odd jobs with meager income that could only sustain our daily meals. I am now so happy because I have noticed a big difference in my children's health. I will forever be thankful to GiveDirectly since we now sleep comfortably and for restoring the joy into our lives.

I spent part of my first transfer on buying building materials which include forty pieces of iron sheets at KES 40000, nails and timber at KES 3500. This was purposely for the renovation of my house becasue its roof was old and in a poor state, whenever it could rain, we could be rained on till dawn. Sometimes we couldn't endure the situation we had to seek shelter elsewhere. Also, I cleared school fees of KES 3000, bought new uniforms and stationery for my children. I am glad they are now studying peacefully with fewer disturbances. The remaining amount of money, I am spending on buying some foodstuffs for my children and meeting some of their daily needs.