My new goal was to buy a cow because I come from a humble background where we don’t own any livestock. I married my wife without paying a dowry because I had nothing. I have since hoped to own livestock, which will enable me to pay her dowry someday. Getting these funds has enabled me to at least buy a cow, which is the beginning of my plan to have livestock.

GiveDirectly is done well because I had nothing. I am a proud owner of two cows and my neighbors as well have either bought cattle like I did or built their homes, which is improving our lifestyle here in the village. I would not want GiveDirectly to do anything differently.

I spent my recent transfer of KES 25,000 to buy a calf because my plan is to keep livestock, keeping in mind the dowry payment expected from me. I found it fair to buy a calf and keep it together with the cow I bought with my first transfer as an investment. I also used KES 20,000 to improvise my home by buying new furniture, because since I moved in with my wife, we have not had the pleasure of enjoying our living room with furniture. The remaining cash was spent on planting beans on my small farm because it is the planting season and on brand new clothes for my family.

I received the money at around 11:00 pm when I had already retired to bed. I felt so happy as I woke up my wife to share the good news with her. I was so anxious and couldn't wait for the next day to go and withdraw the money and spend it as per what we had l is planned. I had one Mpesa agent in mind whom I trusted with the withdrawal of my money. I called him that same night and informed him that I had withdrawn all the money and that I was going to pick them the following day. I chose to withdraw there and then to avoid too much wastage and save on time as well. I had never received such a huge amount of money before in my life and for a moment I couldn't belive it was actually happening to us. I felt so happy that my young family of 1 was going to be stable going forward.

GiveDirectly came in to help me fully settle down with my family. We feel so happy as a family that we have been able to meet our needs that would have had to halt a little longer had we not received them. Life for us has not been the best one since we got married in the year 2020. I have had to struggle to to make ends meet even with only one child to take care of. There was a time we chose to travel away from home to my sisters place thinking that we could be able to get a better life there. Things were no different and we chose to come back home. Right now I am happy that I have been able to settle my family, planted crops in my farm and most importantly bough t a dairy cow that is going to sustain my family. I feel this has been the greatest difference in my life.

I used KES 35000 to buy a dairy cow. In my community starting a family without having a single livestock like dairy cow to meet the protein needs of a new born as well as selling the produce to meet other needs one is considered a failure and life for them is normally hard. It was no different for me. I had felt the pain of buying milk and other needs while the source of income was only casual work within the village which was sometimes hard to get as well. The dairy cow bought has brought a ray of hope for my family and I am looking forward to April when we shall be able to start milking and cut a lot of costs. Considering that we were a young family we chose to buy some of the needs that we did not have as a family among them being blankets, bed and other basic household needs. The money has made me have a sense of responsibility as the head of the household.