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 moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. I was with my husband when I saw a message confirming the same. We were not taken by surprise since we had been informed on the possible dates when we will expect the money in our accounts. My husband and I were filled with joy beyond measure. We knew that our dream of buying a piece of land was finally going to be realized.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in our daily lives since we started receiving payments from GiveDirectly is the piece of land that we were finally able to purchase. This added to the piece of land that we initially owned will go a long way in enabling us practice advanced agricultural activities such as crop farming and livestock keeping. We already have plans of buying a dairy cow with our next transfer which will give us more income to be able to sustain our families well. This investment has made everyone in the family quite happy and stress free. We are a more optimistic family than we have ever been before.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We used KES 50000 to buy a piece of land and used another KES 5000 to buy food for family. We made a decision to buy a small piece of land since we were staying in a tenth of an acre which was too small to allow us practice any agricultural activities in it. For a long time we had a desire and plan of purchasing more land to add onto the one that we had already so as to allow us practice agriculture in a mixed form. We could not do both the farming and livestock keeping in a tenth of an acre and we had to wait until such a time that we would be able to have money. The kind of work that we engaged in to earn money were always casual and could provide us with just enough to feed the family. Right now I personally feel very happy that we were finally able to have additional piece of land where we can now practice advanced agriculture. I am looking forward to receiving the second transfer where I will be able to buy livestock and start keeping to improve my family's living standards.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means a life with a dignity for my family. Life has been so tough for us until sometimes we question ourselves at least maybe to find answers on where we went wrong. It was not easy either for our parents that is why they never educated us perhaps life would have been better because I usually see people with education tend to succeed in life. Since we started this family, we have never had a constant source of money. Farming is not viable due to crop diseases and also prolonged dry seasons. We therefore have to depend on the little we get from casual jobs which is KES. 150 daily on average. This caters only for our meals no other thing. This therefore explains why we live in a very old grass-thatched house with a leaky roof and it is so uncomfortable especially for the kids who get sick often because they are exposed to so much cold. We will therefore spend these transfers to build an iron sheet roofed house and also invest in some livestock so that they can provide an income for the family.
What is the happiest part of your day?
I am happy that when schools reopened this term, World Vision which is a non-governmental organization that works here gave my son a scholarship for the entire academic year to study in a private school.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
We inherited the house we are living in from our parents since we could not afford to build a new one. With time it has become so uncomfortable to live in because the grass-thatched roof has grown so old and leaky therefore we have a challenge with our housing. We also have a challenge with the family's income, we cannot meet all the family's basic needs because the little money we make everyday can only buy us food.
