The cash program availed a perfect opportunity to build a two-bedroom structure in place of the current dilapidated one that is also small. Therefore, through each transfer, I set to acquire cement and hire a constructor to make bricks for the new house. I deducted 5,040 KES from the recently received funds to purchase eight bags of cement and 1,500 KES to compensate the bricklayer. I used the rest of the money, which is 2,460 KES, to procure maize flour and other foodstuffs to ensure daily provision of meals to my family.

I spent my fourth transfer in buying food worth KSH 1000. I bought 8 packets of maize flour at KSH 960. Also bought a ¼ KG of sugar at KSH 30. I bought food because it was the most basic needed I could not provide for my family with my daily earnings. I earn a living from burning wood, making charcoal and selling it to clients. Making the charcoal takes a minimum of seven days before the charcoal can be ready to be packed into sacks for sale. A sack of charcoal goes for KSH 200. On average, I can pack a minimum of six sacks. The rate at which I sell the sacks determines how quickly I will go back to burn more wood and make more charcoal. This then makes it hard for me to provide and cater to my family's needs. The reason for buying lots of maize flour is to have some food to sustain us for long before I can sell and budget food for the family again. With my previous transfer, I have been saving KSH 2000 for every transfer. I am saving the money so that I can finally renovate and build my house well. I want to buy cement and make some bricks that will build the house and do away with the mud walls. I want to have a suitable house that will be spacious and safe for me and my family to live in.

Immediately I was enrolled in the program my primary goal was to be able to repair my house. For many years I have been living in a mud house. Every time we experience heavy downpour my house has been heavily affected. Currently, my house is falling due to weak corner poles. I plan to reinforce this week's poles by building stone pillars on every corner of the house so that it is going to sustain the heavy roof above it. Since the money we receive monthly is too little for the whole renovations at once, I developed a plan that was going to help me achieve my primary goal. I decided to save part of the transfer in a Chama. Through it, I will be able to get a loan with a large amount and repair my house. When I received my first, second, and third transfer I spent KSH 3000 of the total amount of the transfer to buy food for my family. Due to the tough economic items, I was not able to fully provide for my family and the transfer came in handy and helped me purchase food for my family. The remaining KSH 6000 I saved in the Chama.

GiveDirectly has really helped me because at my old age I can barely get any employment and used to work on my farm but the change in climate had really affected me since my husband is old as well and sickly. Which led us to depend on our children most of the times but with the money I receive I had lessened the burden for my children because now I can look after myself.

When I received the money I was elated because unfortunately this year there has been barely any rainfall and this has been a huge problem especially for us subsistence farmers since we depend on what we reap as a part of our meal plan and that is why the first thing I considered was to at least get a bag of maize flour which contained a dozen packets that went for KES 905. As for the remainder of the money which was almost around KES 2000 I put it in my savings because I wanted to renovate my house since it was almost collapsing.

I received the message in the morning at around nine and I was very happy. because when getting introduced to the program in the beginning I was a bit skeptical. I thought it was too good to be true but I am happy I took a leap of faith and decided to be involved, because now I get to have financial assistance which comes a long for my family and I.

My house has needed renovation for a while now and this is both from the inside and the outside. For instance, my husband and I have been sleeping on beds made out of sisal ropes for almost all our lives because we could not afford the luxury of neither a bed nor a mattress so with the money that I am saving I plan to at least buy a new bed and mattress for both my husband and I so that we could sleep well at night because we are both old and we need a comfortable place to put our heads after all this time. I also plan to cement my home and put some brick because it is almost collapsing.

After receiving my transfers I went ahead and purchased twelve packets of maize flour which went for KES 900 an this is because, due to the lack of rainfall it has been very difficult cultivating anything from the farm and ultimately my husband and I do not want to go hungry and that is why we opted for the maize flour. I also set aside KES 2000 because for the longest time I have wanted to renovate my house and so I will be putting money aside so that eventually I can manage to finance the project.