My new goal is to start a business of buying and selling cows. I want to start the business so that it can help me get more money. I have two children who are going to join secondary school come next academic year and I do not have money to buy the things that they will need and pay school fees for them. Apart from the two, I also have another child who is in secondary school. Getting money to pay school fees has always been my biggest challenge. I usually go to market places to do brokering of cows to get money. The little money that I make has most been going to the school fee payment.

The GiveDirectly staff taught us well in the meeting that they held with the community members before starting the enrollment process. They also did well by conducting their work independently and not involving government officials in it. This would have resulted in biasness if it was so. I hence urge them to continue with the good work.

We used the second transfer on building another kitchen. We spent over KES 30000 where we bought 25 iron sheets, trees for building poles, and paid labor costs. We also bought a cow at KES 25000. With the remaining amount, we used part of it in paying school fees for our child who is in secondary school and buying food. I had built the main house with the first transfer but the money was not enough to build the kitchen. I hence decided to wait for the second transfer so that I could do so. The houses that we used to live in were small, old, and grass-thatched. The space was not enough for us and the children to sleep. I was not able to construct the houses before because I did not have the money required. The little that I get from brokering cows at the market usually go to school fee payment for my child in secondary school. We also decided to buy the cow because we use to incur the cost of buying milk where we could buy 2 litres at KES 50 per litre. We are happy because we now have new houses that are roofed with iron sheets and the children have enough space to sleep in. We were also able to clear school fees for the term and we no longer incur the cost of buying milk. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for uplifting our lives.

I was with my helper tending to our kitchen garden when I received a message notification. He offered to help me read it and I became so happy when he informed me that GiveDirectly had deposited the promised money into my account. Full of excitement, I shouted calling my spouse to inform her of the good news and that I would go with her to withdraw the amount.

When I received my transfer, my priority was to purchase a dairy cow as I have been buying milk daily and it is expensive to me and this is the biggest difference in my daily life as it has always been my wish to own one. When it calves, my family will have enough milk for consumption and for sale to earn an income. Also, I will be able to save the money I would otherwise have used in buying milk and use them on other projects like paying school fees for my children. I am so happy because GiveDirectly enabled me to fulfill my dream and I believe that my children are the happiest because they are usually keen to know if it has been fed and given water whenever they come back from school in the evening.

Buying milk has been my routine and I usually spend KES 50 daily on them apart from other basic needs. As a way of reducing our daily expenditure in the future, I bought a dairy cow worth KES 30000. Also, I spent KES 10000 to pay school fees for my son so that he would not be sent back home and from the remaining amount, I spent KES 7650 buying nine pieces of iron sheets and used the remaining KES 6500 on food and clothes for my family.