Since my mother passed on, I had been the main figure in our household where we had been staying with my sister and currently my own family after I got married. The structure that we had been living in as a home was getting so old, and we had been contemplating on constructing a new one to move into with my wife then renovate the old structure for my sister to live in. We have been having these ideas for a long time but have never been able to initiate the construction due to my deteriorating health status and the fact that my wife has earing impairment, and could not work well with any other family members since she delivers and receive all information through sign language. On receiving the first transfer, I spent KES42500 on obtaining the construction materials that included 25 iron sheets, building poles, nails, and also paid the labor cost with KES 6000. I am glad that the construction work is currently up and soon we shall be moving into the new house. I also considered visiting a doctor where I spent KES2000 on medication after a check-up since I had not been feeling well. With the remaining amount, I obtained a sack of maize at KES2000 and also a new mattress at KES1500 to replace the old one that I had been using over the past 5 years.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the construction of a new house after a long time of living in an old structure that was always leaking on the roof whenever it rained. This is a step ahead in improving our living standards as it will be warmer and drier thus not predisposing us to the common colds and other possible infections emanating from the damp floors. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for making this dream come true as we had always been planning this but could not raise enough finances with my family to initiate the plan.

It was around 9 am. when I was awakened by a familiar voice at my doorstep when a neighbor came running to wake me up after receiving a message bearing the first transfer's information from GiveDirectly. It came like a dream to me since I could not believe waking up to such great news. I wasn't in good health that morning and had slept till late but the news about the transfer pulled me out of my sickbed to a celebration with my spouse and the visiting neighbor. I thanked God after confirming with my account, and since we already had plans with my wife we decided to withdraw it the following day as we expected great traffic in the Mpesa shops.