We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($457 USD)
access_time over 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
My new goal now is to save money from the small business that I do selling second-hand clothes to buy a piece of land. I plan to do horticulture farming. I will get enough food for the family and even sell some at the market to earn an income.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build a better houses and pay school fees for their children among other projects. I do not find anything that GiveDirecly did not do well.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent KES 35,000 on purchasing a dairy cow. This is to cut the daily cost of buying milk. This was so expensive since I do not have a stable source of income. Currently, I have enough milk for my family. Besides that, I spent KES 10,000 on purchasing building materials and building a poultry house. I am planning on starting a poultry-keeping project. The rest of the money I spent was on food and household items.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($481 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was very happy after reading a message that came in around 5:00 PM that confirmed the receipt of my first transfer. I was at home alone at that moment and had to call my husband and shared the good news. We planned through the phone and later headed to the shopping center where I withdrew and spent accordingly.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life is the presence of the two livestock that I invested my first transfer on. After buying a heifer and a goat, I am certain that my family's future will be better than it is at the moment. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for this timely support that has made a lot of changes in my life.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I had been milk for my family of four for a long time and the receipt of the first transfer was great timing for me to buy a dairy cow. At first, I thought I will buy an already lactating cow but the hiked pieces in all the nearby markets made me settle on a heifer at KES 33000 - a price that fit the initial budget I had for a mature breed. Even though I am still buying milk at the moment, I am happy that I have an assurance that it will not be forever after bringing in a good potential breed that will serve us well once it calf down. I spent KES 4000 of the remaining amount on a goat that I am looking forward to breeding and multiplying so that I can sell them out in the future. I spent the remaining KES 5000 on clothing and another KES 5000 on foodstuff for my family of four. I used the last remaining bit on kitchenwares that I had been missing.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I have been keeping my chicken together with 2 goats in the kitchen producing a bad stench. I feel inappropriate to do this but due to lack of financial inadequacy, we have no option. My biggest dream has been to build a separate house to act as a kitchen and leave the current one for chicken and goats. I was super excited knowing that Give Directly was making their entry into the village knowing that my dream will soon materialize. I, therefore, intend to spend approximately KES 30,000 of the first transfer to build a kitchen for my family. Fulfilling this dream will be my greatest achievement as a parent.
What is the happiest part of your day?
In the last 6 months, none of my family members have fallen sick and that is what we are grateful for. Because we are going through hard economic times and the coronavirus pandemic period, we are glad that all my family members are healthy and free from sickness.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Financial inadequacy is the greatest challenge we are currently facing. I am a housewife and my husband has not secured a better job since he graduated 5 years ago. He opted to be employed as a casual laborer in a certain girls school which is far from the village. He earns an unsustainable salary of 12,000 a month. Given that he has huge domestic recurrent expenditure, that amount is not enough to cater to a family of 4; he has to pay his rent+food and he comes home every weekend to visit us and leave us some cash to take throughout the week. This is a huge burden for a single person to handle yet we are facing financial turmoil.
