We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($525 USD)
access_time over 4 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
The biggest difference in my daily life is that now I am self employed. I generate income through the business which I started with the transfers which I received. I can take care of family needs with less struggle. Thanks to Give Directly for enabling me to start a business.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
Give Directly did well by considering us in our area. Majority of us live below poverty line. I never notice anything that I can say this organization never did well as their operations are transparent as almost everyone benefited.
What did you spend your second transfer on?
The second transfer which I received from Give Directly, I invested the whole amount in a cereal business. I saw a great opportunity in buying and selling maize due to the shortage of the produce in our area. I would purchase from the neighbouring counties and resell it with a fair price.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($541 USD)
access_time over 5 years ago
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Describe the biggest difference in your daily life.
The great blessing from GiveDirectly really elevated our joy. receiving it was the best thing to have ever happened in our lives. The money changed a lot of things and the biggest among them all is the fact that we nowadays have enough food to feed the whole family and the surplus which we do help other neighbors who might not be able to to get what to eat at a given day. We are really thankful that things changed and made us forget the hard times which we have been facing before.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
Receiving this money brought great joy to both my family and I. Everyone was really happy that ululation could be heard from the neighborhood. My wife had to wake up earlier than usual to check on our villagers whether they had received theirs too. we have never stopped to be happy since then, it was a great blessing to our family which planted a memory which would never fade away.
What did you spend your first transfer on?
Before receiving the transfers we had laid down great strategies on how we will spend from the first coin to the last. We were eagerly waiting for that day when we would receive so that we can do as we had promised ourselves. when we received we spent the first part of it on buying a heifer since we wanted to stop the persistent problem of buying milk which still was not enough to gather for our needs from our neighborhood. I also spent part of it in buying six goats which we are rearing with the intent to grow them to a point of selling to use as school fees for my children. I have also bought woods in preparation to construct a new house. For a long time now we have been living in a tattered house with a leaking roof. The house was too small to be occupied by our children and us and the elder daughter had to always look for where to sleep in our neighbor's house. It wasn't safe though but we had no otherwise since we were not able to construct any other house on our own. We thank GiveDirectly for the far they have brought us.
Enrolled
access_time over 5 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
After I got married four years ago, my ambition has been to build a second house to accommodate an inevitable expanding family. This has since not been possible because proceeds I get from my small maize vending business can only fend for our daily bread. With an increasing family almost every two years, my hut cannot accommodate the current family of four -even harder in a few years to come. But thanks to Give Directly I am about to rewrite the narrative. Receiving my first transfer puts me in a position to build another house that will reduce the congestion among my children, wife and I under the same roof. This is the life of dignity I have yearned to achieve.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I am a herder. My day involves looking after the family livestock from morning till late in the afternoon. It is during late in the evening that my children come to relieve me when out of school. This is the happiest part of my day because I get time to run my small cereal business in a nearby shopping centre
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
My late uncle who had been a maize vending business partner of six years was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. Our joint venture took a turn to the worst immediately he began undergoing treatment, a series of trips in and out of several hospitals. Most proceeds earlier accrued from our business went to his medication treatment. I became drained both emotionally and financially and it became hard to provide for my own family needs due to lack of finances. He passed on last month and I am still struggling to pick up from where we left. This is the biggest hardship I've faced in my life.
