I am planning to start up a small business supplying maize to boarding schools. I usually do it although to homesteads on order. In the near future, I will be expanding and mostly the deliveries will be done by the motorcyclist as they will be in large quantities. The profits from the business will be taking care of my kids' school fees.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps in planning as one is in a position to do something huge as compared to when the transfers are given in small instalments. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. To avoid household conflict, what needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents.

-Before the transfer, I never had a modern house, I owned a small grass-thatched house which was leaking during the rainy season. I thank Give Directly for the transfers as I managed to build a three-bedroom modern house for kshs 50,000. Initially, I never had peace of mind as it was so tiresome moving some of my valuable items during the rainy season, my young boys too never had adequate space to spend their nights and this was so stressful as they could sleep in a neighbour's house. My peace of mind is finally restored since I built a house. Getting a balanced and regular meal had been the most difficult thing for my young family of three. I used the whole balance of kshs 5000 to stock food for an entire month. We are very grateful for the transfers.

While sitting in my house sheltering myself from the unbearable sunshine from the shamba, I heard a message tone from my phone. Since I know how to check for M-pesa messages, I checked and confirmed that I had received the transfer of $550 from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy that I jumped up and down knowing that better doors had opened up and the hardship was going to be minimal.

The biggest difference in my life is that I own and live in a nice iron-roofed house like others in the village. I feel happy and more secure since I am no longer worried about our safety like before when my house was collapsing. Additionally, I can afford meals every day unlike before when I used to seeping hungry most of the time. I am very grateful for the transfer.

For quite some time, I had been taking risk of sleeping in a half-collapsed house. I took the risk since I had no alternative. During the rainy season, there was no difference between staying outside and being in that house; it was all the same. Upon getting the first transfer, the priority was the house. Therefore, I used $243 to put up a simple decent house that could comfortably accommodate me and my family. I am very humbled and happy for GiveDirectly because as we speak I am in the house you enabled me to build. Thereafter, I bought a bed and a mattress for $85 and $65 respectively. I did this because I had none at all and I used to sleep on some pieces of boxes. Since I depend on subsistence farming, I used $100 in tilling my piece of land and buying some seeds. Poverty had made me take some food items on credit so I paid $85 to a shopkeeper who used to give me some foodstuff. For the remaining little amount, I used it to buy some food for my family.