My life is different than it would have been if I never received the transfer in that I was able to construct a decent shelter for my family. Previously, I use to stay in my neighbour's house after mine collapsed something that made my life miserable since l lost my privacy. Moreover, I was able to boost my livestock rearing after most of them died due to the drought conditions. Furthermore, my children are learning without any interruption after clearing all the fee arrears, I am confident that their performance will improve this year. Lastly, I have enough food stock for the family and I am no longer worried about feeding them, I concentrate my energy in other development projects.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well for helping the poor households in society with the cash transfer program. Through the transfer, I was able to construct a decent shelter for my family since the house that I use to live in had collapsed. I was forced to seek refuge from my neighbors together with the children for 2 months. I grateful to GiveDirectly for coming up with the program that has restored my privacy which I had lost.

Being a livestock farmer, my ambition has been to boost this career even before I got enrolled in the program. This is an activity that has been sustained us for all those years. I spent KES 24000 to invest in it by purchasing one cow and 2 goats this is because it was not stable since we experienced drought that killed most of my livestock some years back. I also used KES 10000 to clear all the school fees for my 4 children who are still in primary level. It was long since I paid their fees hence they had accumulated huge fee balances. The remaining amount assisted me in purchasing adequate food stock for the family, it has been since we had enough harvest from our farm. I was struggling to feed my family by doing casual labor of charcoal burning.

It was around 8 AM when I learned that I had finally received Mpesa message from GiveDirectly that I had patiently been waiting for. I was overwhelmed with joy and I remember I was even preparing breakfast for my children and I had to stop. We started celebrating as a family since we were certain that we would achieve a lot through the financial support.

The fact that I am now a proud owner of a new house makes the biggest difference in my daily life. This is becasue, the initial house wasn't in a good state at all. Most of its walls had some cracks and during the cold seasons, my children were always attacked by pneumonia and asthma respectively. In regards to this, I had to spend a lot when seeking medical attention. Also even during the summer, some were forced to seek shelter from their friends because the house was not spacious. This issue had been a bother to me as a parent but I had to option becasue of the poverty life that had stricken my household. I am currently happy and proud becasue I no longer have to worry about the heavy downpours and even the heath of my children.

For all those years I have been sheltering under a small house that was in a deplorable condition. Its walls were made of mud with cracks all over and always felt insecure. Therefore I spent a larger portion of the transfer on buying building poles, irons sheets, timber and nails, and a wooded door. I opted to purchase all these to construct a decent new house. Also with the remaing amount, I am using it in buying enough food that would last us up to a whole month and some household items that I was lacking.