I have a new goal of buying a water tank. When I received my first and second transfer, among the things that I did was to build a new and bigger house that is roofed of iron sheets. Having built a new house, I now look forward to saving enough money through my merry go round contributions both from business and farming that would then be used to buy a water tank. It pains me a lot to see a lot of water during rainy season going to waste and me having to go for long distances to fetch water while I can harvest rain water. I have very small containers that cannot contain much water to take me through a dry season. Getting this water tank will be a game changer to me and my family. I look forward to seeing this happen before the year ends.

In my opinion GiveDirectly did very well by giving us an opportunity to spend the money in our own preferences. This freedom of choice was a game changer and brought out the best of GiveDirectly. Initially we have heard of supports from NGOs but the support that they normally give is mostly material support.Looking at the cows that I bought and even the clothes that I bought gives me so much joy as a beneficiary. I feel my interests, tastes and preferences were respected.

I used KES 30000 to buy a dairy cow and used the remaining amount to buy clothes and food for the family. We had had to sell all our livestock before in order to pay school fees for our children who were in the University then and this left us with no livestock or any meaningful asset for that matter. It was not until we received transfers from GiveDirectly that we thought of buying these livestock. They are a good investment in our area of stay that thrives very well when taken care of. This was also a savings plan towards other needs that may arise in future. I am particularly very happy because one of the cows that I bought has already calfed and buying milk for me is now a thing of the past. My family too got the rare opportunity of purchasing new clothes and the joy of wearing them is still being felt to date. We had not been able to accomplish some of these things because of the nature of work that we do to earn a living. We rely on small scale businesses to sustain the needs of our families and we get just enough to feed our families from these businesses

It was around 8 pm and I was having supper with my husband when suddenly my phone rang. I wondered what the message could all be about and hence I decided to check it to satisfy my curiosity. I was surprised to find out that it was an SMS saying that I had received KES 55000 from Segovia technology. I had been called by a GiveDirectly staff during the day at around 3 pm, hence I was surprised at how the money had been sent quickly. Nevertheless, I was so happy on seeing the SMS and I immediately shared the wonderful news with my husband. He was so happy on hearing about it. That day we took our supper with happiness as we planned on how we were going to spend it.

The transfer has brought a very big difference in my life and that of my family. We are happier than before since we were able to buy the things we didn't have before, that is, a tank and a cow. The cow is about to calve. Apart from that, we also bought new clothes for ourselves and we have enough food to eat.

We spent most of the transfer money on buying a cow. We bought it at KES 35000. Apart from the cow, we also bought a water tank at KES 10000, and with the remaining amount of money, we used it in buying two bags of maize and clothes for ourselves. We decided to buy the cow since we had only one cow and we wanted another so that when one dries, we can still have a constant supply of milk. This way we will avoid the cost of buying milk when the cow dries. We will thus be able to have milk for our consumption and a little for sale. We were not in a position to buy the cow before because we didn't have the huge sum of money needed to do so. We usually plant maize and when it ripes well, we usually sell some of the bags to get income. My husband is a mason and the money that he makes is what we usually use to purchase food, clothes and household necessities such as soap, sugar. We are thus grateful to GiveDirectly because the transfer was of great help to us.