The new goal I had for this second transfer was to build another house that was to be used by our children because we were sharing the same house and they are grownups which sharing a house with them is discouraged in our culture. I bought iron sheets and paid people to make concrete blocks for the house. That was the new and main goal I reserved for this second transfer, and I am happy I achieved it.

Everything, in my opinion, is well done by GiveDirectly. I cannot complain and all I have is gratitude. I got to address all the challenges that were pressing and got the ability or space to deal with the others that I can. I am so grateful.

The house is the one that took a huge part of the transfer which was almost KES30000 because the house we were living in previously was growing smaller since the children were also growing bigger and consequently, items in the house increased as well which made the house crowded and with little or no space at all. Also, sharing a house with our grownup children is against our culture, therefore, it was important that our children get their own house and free up space in the house that is for my husband and me. I am now so happy and proud because, being a brick house, it will last for a long time.

I can still recall it was exactly 9 in the morning when I was heading to the shop to buy bread and sugar for breakfast when my phone staqrted ringing. That was an indication that there was a new message coming in. Because I am illiterate I did not bother to check wh ut was. I proceeded to the shop considering my children had not taken anything in the previosu night. After finishing I went back home and decided to ask my son to check the content of the message. He confirmed that it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly and we were all happy upon hearing this news. We were positive that a lot will change positevely.

Having the two dairy cows that I purchased from the cash transfers has brought the biggest difference in my daily life. Before GiveDirectly came into my life, I never own any asset though I have been yearning to have at least a chicken I could not afford because of financial difficulties. I settled for the cows because as compared to other domestic animals, they have numerous benefits like; plenty of milk, manure among others. In the next two months, I am optimistic that I will be getting plenty of liters of milk whereby some will be for the family consumption and sell the remaining liter to the local shops and neighbors. One liter normally goes for KES 50 which I believe is going to be a lucrative business since milk is in high demand in our region. My plan is to save the money and support my children's education which has been a challenge to me. Initially, I used to depends on a casual job(farming) and getting a low salary of KES 200 a day. Therefore I feel this will be a permanent solution for all sorts of troubles we have been going through as a family.

I spent KES 9000 of the first transfer on paying school fees for my son who is in secondary school. This has enabled him to study without disturbances which have been the bigger challenge ever since he joined the school. Also, I bought two dairy cows worthy of KES 26000 which are now serving as the only living assets that I can lean on in case of any emergency. It has been my dream to own even one but I could not afford it because they are very costly. In addition to that, I bought some bricks at KES 2000 purposely for the renovation of my house. I had wished to add another room to make them three but the building materials were very expensive. Considering my family is big (7 members) it could not accommodate some of us and we had to shelter from our relatives. With the KES 8000, I bought food for my family that would at least take us to the next harvesting season.