My wife and I used to plant and sell tomatoes back in 2019 before the persistent drought that has seen our lands unproductive for about four years. We both did casual labour but have none of this jobs now to make income. We started the chicken project that we now rely on. The recent rains have allowed us farm food for use in our home which has helped us with access to food. We however want to go back to our tomato selling business. We now have a big family as we now have 4 children who all depend on us. We want to go back to tomato farming to make more income and take care of the children. As a family we are also planning to open both our separate bank accounts where we will save monthly proceeds from the transfers and chicken farming to reinvest into our children schooling.

When I received my Givedirectly transfers the first time I invested in chicken rearing. I spent $10 in October on chicken feed, $17 in December on chicken feed and medicine for the chicks. We had some heavy rains in the month of October and my house came apart. I had to renovate the house, I spent $15 on poles and $10 on building sticks while the rest went into paying the mason. October saw us do some plant farming and we spent $20 in tilling the land. In December we spent the remaining $17 to buy food items used during the festivities.

Looking ahead, my goal is to construct a brick-walled house, as it offers greater durability compared to my current mud-walled dwelling. The house I built six years ago is showing signs of weakening walls and foundations over time, and I am determined to avoid the risk of it collapsing, leaving me without shelter before I can construct a new one. Additionally, I plan to expand my poultry farm by acquiring different breeds of chickens, including layers and broilers. I aim to make poultry farming my primary source of income, especially since I do not currently have a job. By selling broilers and eggs from the layers, I am excited to further develop this venture, providing for my family and supporting the education of my four children.

After I started receiving the transfer payments, I decided to venture into chicken rearing. Before 2021, I owned a herd of cows, but unfortunately, some of them perished due to drought conditions. Consequently, I chose to sell the remaining cattle, retaining only two bulls for plowing purposes. With the advent of the cash aid, I opted to embark on chicken rearing. Every month, I purchased hens, gradually accumulating a total of ten, and I allowed them to breed. Today, I am delighted to share that I have approximately 70 chickens and 8 guinea fowls. I'm pleased with the progress of this project, having generated $40 in revenue from the sale of chickens so far. In the recent cash transfer, I allocated $4 for layer feeds, as I also have a layer among my poultry. I devoted $25 to purchase food supplies because we had not yet started harvesting, and the maize crops were not fully matured. The remaining $5 was utilized to cover examination fees for my three children in primary school to ensure they did not miss their end-of-term tests.

My main goal is to expand the current poultry project that I have. I want to construct a nursery and buy 15 layers to add to the project so that I would be supplying eggs within the area to to boost the income from the sales of the other chicken. To achieve this, I plan to save part of my monthly transfers and I would be setting aside around $15 every month to help me start the side project and I believe that the income from the entire business would be of great help in terms of educating my children and I would never be stressed even if the project comes to an end since I would be having a source of income.

The transfers had been of much help to me, I initially had a dream of having a poultry rearing project, and with the transfers, I managed to start the project and I currently have 50 chicken. I have been using the transfers on buying more poultry and other, vaccines and other items, but the most recent one was of great help in terms of buying their feeds. I spent $16 on buying a sack of chicken feeds and currently, I do not have the stress about how to get money to purchase their feeds. I also managed to pay school fees for two of my children who are both in lower primary and with the remaining amount of money, I bought food for my family worth $13 and I felt so grateful.

I plan to have started livestock farming specifically goats by the end of this year. I am balancing paying school fees for my three primary school children and doing an investment. Since I am required to pay $28 per term and a term has three months. I will be spending one month's transfer for fees and the other transfers for the rest of the months on buying the goats. I chose goat farming over cows because of the climate condition in our area. Goats can survive in harsh conditions while cows cannot cope. Again goats have ready markets because they are cheap to acquire, so I will be able to convert them into monetary value when the need arises.

I made up my mind to start raising chickens a few months before I entered the program. The only issue was that after using all of my savings to build a chicken coop, I had no money left over to purchase the hens. As soon as I started receiving my money, I was overjoyed because it was a significant financial boost that would allow me to realize my dream. I used a significant portion of my previous transfers to purchase 30 hens, who have since multiplied, giving me a total of 85 hens. Out of the 85 total hens, 35 are ready to be sold, and their market value is $3 each. With my most recent transfers, I bought a $14 bag of animal feed. This was very important in making sure the hens had food. I also purchased some medications from the agrochemical stores in addition to animal feeds. This was done to maintain the hens' health. I then used the remaining money to prepare my 2 acres of land for planting by tilling it. We recently experienced heavy rains for the first time in two years, and I'd like to resume crop farming, which had been my primary source of income. As I learn to become financially stable, this will help me have a backup income.

As soon as I realized the arrival of the transaction I decided to use KES 400 in paying for examination fee for two of my children. Immediately after I sort out to take care of nourishment and this is due to the fact that starvation was one of our biggest problems. Therefore I ended up spending KES 2,000 on a bag of maize flour which contained a dozen packets and three kilograms of beans. I was left with a balance of KES 600 which I left in my savings account.

Upon losing almost all our livestock, I believe GiveDirectly does well in lifting up our living standard. It does this through issuing unconditional cash transfers. Giving the transfer, on a monthly basis is a good approach that helps us as the beneficiaries to support our family. However, sometimes there are delays on the time GiveDirectly sends transfers to us.

I have two sons who are both in primary school. Since I have not been having a reliable source of income, I have not been able to buy them a new set of school uniforms. I had been relying on selling kales which had low revenues. As a result, in the previous terms, they were using uniforms with patches all over. So when I received my recent transfer, I spent KES 1,000 on buying them new school uniforms. I also bought two hens that I shall raise with an aim of selling them once they are fully grown. Lastly, I am planning to spend KES 1,000 to offset the school fee arrears I previously had.

As soon as I received my transfer, my joy was multiplied. In the course of that week, I was down financially and I was figuring out how I would be able to raise money for buying maize seeds. I had tried to raise money through other casual jobs, however casual jobs are currently rare and hard to get. As a matter of fact, many people have opted to prioritize saving their money in order to be able to acquire food for their families. Thanks to GiveDirectly for helping me out from such a stressful moment.

With the transfers, I have been able to recommit myself to mixed farming practices. Hopefully, when there is adequate rainfall, I shall be able to grow different kinds of crops that will be beneficial to my family. Courtesy of the transfer, I have so far bought maize seeds and tomato seeds, what I could not ppreviously do. Before the transfer, I was really struggling to raise money for buying seeds. In addition, getting chicken feed was equally very difficult for me.

I am a mixed farmer and I always plant different kinds of crops. With my transfer, I bought a 2 kg packet of maize seed, tomato seeds and kale seeds. I have already prepared my farm for planting. I am currently waiting for the rains to begin planting. When the rain comes, I am hopeful that I shall be able to have a bumper harvest for my family. Furthermore, I bought some chicken feed for my domestic fowl because there was quite little feed available for them. I am glad that some of my chickens have already begun laying eggs.