I have been able to cement the entire house using part of the transfers. i have always had the desire of making a transformation of my house to a semi-permanent house but the only hindrance has always been lack of money. I also bought a lot of modern seedlings and fertilizers that I have used in the farming process, so basically that means that I will be able to get a bumper harvest at the end of the season.

The organization does well by giving unconditional transfers to the needy which helps in alleviating their lives from one level to the next.For instance, thee are those who use the transfers to build new houses which they could not have built were it not for the transfers. There are those who also use the money to pay school fees for their kids, which according to me is such a positive thing.

The cash was so helpful to me because it enabled me to pay school fees for my children in a bid to keep them in school and make them concentrate on their studies on a fill-time basis. I used a total of twenty three thousand shillings in paying the fees arrears. I also used part of the money to buy food for the family as well as making making other major repairs on my house.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the fulfillment I have and feel now. I have my own livestock, even though I had some before, It makes so happy to see my kraal expanded from two to four cows. The fact that they are generating me some income from the milk they produce makes me happier and more satisfied. My day to day is also so occupied with no time to idle as I have to take more time taking care of the livestock.

I was already awake listening to my favorite program from our vernacular radio station dubbed, "know your bible" when I heard my phone ring. I checked and saw a Mpesa Message from GiveDirectly, I woke up my wife and all she said was,''We thank God'', We had to pray to thank God for this gift of money. When daylight came, you could see the excitement in people's faces and no one could pass you without asking if you had received too. I was super happy too, even though there are those who had their doubts about the money, like one aged woman who sent for me and I had to take my time and remind her of how GD staff talked to us about the money, I saw she was excited too and immediately after getting convinced for the second time, she called her granddaughter and went to the hospital using the same transfers. I was and still so happy.

The money came at the right time when people were starting to lease farms for planting as the next planting season was almost here. I am now venturing into full-time farming for commercial purposes given that I have a son who cleared his high school last year but I have not managed to take him to college due to lack of money. I also felt I was idle with nothing much to do. I could not depend on my pension which was also too little to sustain my family, so my neighbor influenced me into farming, at least I can make some money out of the time I have, working in my farm and taking care of my livestock by selling the product. This is how I spent my first transfer: leasing a one-acre piece of land and buying the two cows. Afte ensuring that I have something income generating, I decided to expand my house that was too squeezed. I could not host visitors previously and had to ask neighbors to help me keep them for the nights they visited. This was embarrassing as neighbors could tease me sometimes. This was so hurting that I could not host my own visitors, but now I want them to visit me as I have a place where they can sleep with me in the same house.