Looking back at my life before receiving the transfer, my neighbors can testify that my life has totally changed. This is because I have been able to build a house for my family and bought a heifer. Even though I still buy milk on a daily basis, I am glad and hopeful that this will end soon. Before receiving the transfer, I used to live in a small house that we were using as a kitchen and living room during the day and we would turn it to a bed room at night. Due to this, I was always not comfortable welcoming a guest to my house as I knew that she would have longer nights due to insufficient beddings and most old people does not like the idea of sharing a room with children. Currently, I have the privacy that I really needed and I no longer shy off from welcoming guests to my house.

After receiving the transfers, most people built decent houses, bought livestock and paid fees for their children. Personally, I spent mine on school fees, a heifer and to build a house for my family. These are developments that would not have been realized had GiveDirectly not given out financial aid and to me, this is what they do best. I do not see anything that they do not do well.

I have been spending KES 50 daily on milk and this is expensive and not enough to make tea for my family of 7 members and set aside some for my daughter's child who is still very young. At times, we are forced to take tea without milk and due to this, I decided to spend KES 23000 to purchase a heifer after receiving my transfers. Also, I spent KES 10000 to pay school fees for my daughter who is in her final year in secondary school studies. I settled on this so that she would not be sent back home to collect fee arrears hence she will be able to concentrate on her studies. Using the remaining KES 22000, I bought some food and clothes for my family.

After enrolment, nights have been longer, and even days have never been any better. The anticipation to receive the transfer was great and there has been a feeling of uncertainty even after the assurance that we will soon be receiving it. The joy was immeasurable when I finally received it and had to summon my kids to confirm with me and share the joy. Everyone was so happy and thankful that a lot was soon going to get better in our household.

After receiving the transfer and putting everything allocated on the plans I had, I can testify to the great changes depicted currently. After a long time, I have regained a relaxed mind with less pressure nor worries about how every day will be starting. It has been a month now since I withdrew from the daily casual labor that was paying so little after working for the whole day that I could not work on my own projects. I now have time to concentrate on my own projects which is the biggest difference I am currently enjoying each day. The fact that the chores were slowly becoming competitive and hard to find due to the large number of people working on the same, the pay had also been gradually reducing and would sometimes push me to switch to fetching firewood deep in the forests so that I can sell to the nearby food shops. This has never been easy but I am glad that I am now trying to generate foodstuff from my own farms.

With the first 15000KES out of my total transfer, I purchased a good breed of a heifer. This came on top of the budget list since I needed to soon end the high cost of obtaining milk from my neighbors. This was slowly becoming a habit and could cost me quite a good number of coins every month that still could not satisfy my kids at any moment. I also invested 17000KES in obtaining iron sheets in preparation to construct a new house. After passing on of my husband some years back, I was left to take care of five kids, now grown and I saw it good to put up a spacious structure where they can freely get ample room to study. The initial house we had been living in was getting smaller and this was an opportunity for me to effect a change. I also spent 12000KES on foodstuff and clothing for every member of our household. I am glad that after all the expenses, I was able to remain with some amount which has been helping me not only in checking and replenishing any need within the household but also in serving any emergency.