Had it not been GivDirectly, then I would still be living in my small house, no extension and my children would be seeking shelter in the neighborhood. The transfer enabled me to purchase enough building materials to add an extension of two rooms, something I could not fulfil at my own cost. It is only through their financial support that I accomplished this. At least my children can be accommodated under one roof

The coming of GiveDirectly to our village has greatly changed our lives. Many of us were living in houses that were in pathetic conditions, lacking the basic necessities and even to some providing daily food for their families was a problem due to the financial difficulties we were going through. Today, new iron-roofed houses have been built, some have even upgraded to permanent homes. To others, who opted to invest in livestock, they have them as assets and even helping to improve farming. This is an impact that even when GiveDirectly has gone, we will still be in higher living standards and they did best by giving us this unconditional money. To me, there is no area that it did not do well.

I spent KES 42000 from my transfer to purchase some building materials in order to build an extension of two rooms of my house. It was very small and I needed it to be spacious enough to accommodate my children. I bought iron sheets, nails and building poles for this purpose. I am grateful to GiveDirectly because my children are now at peace sleeping in this house. I spent KES 9000 to pay the mason for his job. I spent the remaining amount to pay for my children's school fees. They are now comfortably in school without any interruptions concerning school fees.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that we were getting little income from what my husband was earning when he was employed. This always made us unable to meet some of the basic necessities for our family. Owning our own motorcycle has increased our daily income and we can now comfortably provide some basic needs like daily food and clothing for our family that previously seemed difficult for us to provide.

I was woken up by the message notification on my phone and I went direct through my inbox to check who the sender was. On checking to confirm, for sure I could not hold back the happiness and joy that instantly filled my heart as I realized that GiveDirectly had sent my first transfer. I could not sleep any more as I knew that I would soon accomplish the things that seemed impossible to me.

I had saved some money with my husband with the objective of buying a motorcycle. My goal was to provide taxi services at a fee in our town centre, which would be an income generating activity for our family. Meeting our daily basic needs to us was a challenge since the little income that my husband was earning was not enough to satisfy all of them. On receiving my first transfer, I added to what we had saved and purchased the motorcycle. My husband is experienced in providing these services for he was previously employed by a neighbour though he was getting little income from it since he had to pay back a portion of the income to the owner. My husband is now operating the taxi business and I am happy that it's only through the support from GiveDirectly that has enabled us to fulfil our plans for we are getting daily income from it and are able to meet our basic necessities with much ease.