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.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life.
I have been planning to build a new house since the one that I was staying in was in a bad condition and also not spacious enough to accommodate my children. I could not, however, afford to buy the necessary materials to facilitate this. When I received my first transfer, I managed to buy enough iron sheets to start with, as I seek for more finances to purchase the remaining materials to complete the construction of my house. So far, having these iron sheets that will facilitate the construction of a new decent house is the biggest difference in my daily life, because I wouldn't have managed to buy any at my own cost.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I heard my phone ringing early in the morning, a notification of a message. I was curious to know who could have sent me a message early that morning. On reading its contents, I was overwhelmed with joy when I realised that money had been sent into my Mpesa account. I thanked GiveDirectly for sending the money because I would no longer struggle to purchase some building materials that I wasn't able to buy because of the financial hardship I was facing.
What did you spend your first transfer on?
I have been struggling to raise enough money to enable me to build a decent house for my family and because I did not have enough resources to facilitate this, I had no option but to stay in the small house which was in a bad state to a point of collapsing. I am grateful to GiveDirectly because when I received my first transfer, I purchased enough iron sheets to start with as I wait to buy the remaining materials in order to build a decent house. My child had also been sent home due to the fee arrears that I couldn't pay on time. He is currently continuing with his studies after I cleared the balance that was outstanding. It gives me peace seeing him schooling without any interruptions concerning school fees anymore.
Enrolled
access_time over 4 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
A decent house is what every household desires to have. In our case, for instance, we have lived in a tiny house for far too long, a situation we haven't been able to change due to lack of sufficient finances. With children coming of age, it becomes impossible to share the one-roomed house together forcing them to seek an alternative space at their grandparent's. Again, having visitors over always humiliates -because I can not accommodate them. This has been a constant cause of ridicule from relatives and neighbors. Therefore, building a house is my top priority -- and accomplishing this will give me inner peace. Apart from that my husband intends to use part of the transfers to start up a livestock trading business. At the moment he engages in charcoal burning and other odd jobs to sustain the needs of the family. For him, having that business up and running will be a dream come true. This is a reliable source of income, and that is what receiving this money means to us.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Evening is the happiest part of my day. Unlike the rest of the day, it is in the evening where I get time to rest. Usually, I wake up to hectic activities, from attending to household chores to assisting my husband out there in the field. I always long for the day to end so that I can rest. We also share a meal in the evening and that spice it up even more.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Lack of sustainable sources of income has been the biggest hardship in life. At the moment, we depend on charcoal burning business, a venture that is so strenuous, yet a low paying one -the returns earned there are hardly enough to sustain the needs of the family. To put this into perspective, from the village to where we get the required trees, one walks for over 15 kilometers, and a sack of ready charcoal goes for ksh500 tops. And to earn that, one has to work for it for over a week; sometimes we are forced to spend our nights in the cold because it needs close attention and constant checking to avoid losses. That explains the kind of struggles that we go through to put food of the table. In most cases, we struggle a lot to keep kids in school since the money earned is not enough to cater for all that, and this calls for a lot of sacrificing. Receiving this aid will be a great relief, at least my family will no longer have to endure hard life situations. We intend to maximize its gains.
