Being unemployed, I rely on my husband who does casual paperwork jobs at the ward office to provide. Since his income is insufficient to sustain the family’s daily needs, I joined a merry-go-round group within our compound where members contribute a monthly amount of money as savings, which they can access later during a financial emergency. So I saved KES 1000 from my transfer through the group. Additionally, I used KES 2000 to acquire prescription orthopedic boots for my son to help straighten his legs. I am grateful to see him relieved of the walking strain and pain he experienced prior to the special shoes.

I am house wife with 4 children and one of my child who is 8years is disabled. The biggest challenge has been the countless times have spent in different hospitals for my son to have a normal life.I used my first transfer to pay for his physiotherapy which is kshs 500 and kshs 1000 was used for lunch, transport to and from my place to APDK mombasa.The rest of the funds was used to buy food for my family.Its become a routine on both the second and the third transfer because my husband works as a clerk in NTSA and he can barely afford the weekly physiotherapy. GiveDirectly funds are the only hope for my son to have the physiotherapy atleast twice in a month.

I am very grateful to GiveDirectly especially since this funds have helped me with the improvement of my daughters health because ever since I started receiving this money she has barely missed her medical appointments unlike before where she would miss even an entire month. I am very much thankful for the financial assistance.

One of my children happened to fall sick eight months after I gave birth to her and later on the doctors declared that she had a problem with the bones in her legs. I took her for an operation years later but I was also required to take her for physiotherapy every Monday of every week so that her leg would be strong. When I received the following Monday I took her to hospital and for the exercise it was KES 500, the fare back and forth was KES 800 and I bought her breakfast and lunch that day and it cost KES 200. I also paid KES 1,000 for the uniform of my twin daughters since the ones they owned were old and torn. Lastly I bought two packets of maize four at KES 200, a kilogram of sugar at KES 120 and I bought five packets of milk for my infant at KES 150.

I was genuinely very happy because I had really wanted my son to visit the hospital and have physiotherapy because according to the doctors it helps him strengthen his leg and also enables him to at least manage to fold and move his leg. This made me genuinely happy because he had missed the appointment for his therapy twice in a row due to our lack of financial stability and I happen to be a stay home mother while my husband who is the sole benefactor of the family was laid off work during the peak of Covid-19. Eventually trips to the hospital also became challenging.

The ability to afford my sons hospital bills has been of immense help because if it were up to us his parents, he would get more visits to the doctor but our sustainability especially economically has deteriorated and thus affecting our ability to cater for our son's health. Therefore the fact that we could take him to hospital was a great load off our backs because we his parents want to see him progress.

The first thing I considered after receiving the funds was to take my son for medical attention. After the birth of my son eight years ago, soon as he turned eight months he developed a condition in the bones of his legs that left him almost disabled. So for eight years I had to deal with taking my son to different hospitals for medical attention and we even took him for surgery twice so as to enable him to walk but it has been challenging due to our financial situation. As soon as I got the money I took him to hospital for a physiotherapy session which is required for him and it cost me five hundred kenyan shillings and the fare back and forth was seven hundred and eighty shillings.