I must admit that I have made a great step since I started receiving the transfers from Give Directly. I never imagined of owning a decent house and livestock because I could not afford them. At the moment, I do not have any new goals since I managed to meet the most pressing needs. I am grateful to the organization for its support.

The village was known for machetes and axes because our main source of income was charcoal burning for sale. We owe the huge transformation to Give Directly because immediately after the disbursement of the first transfer people invested in various income-generating activities which have slowed down the rate of charcoal burning. Everyone in the village is satisfied with the idea of unconditional cash from Give Directly. I have not heard of any complaints or dissatisfaction from anyone.

After successfully spending a better portion of the first transfer on building materials for my new house and other household expenses, I did not manage to construct the house because I ran out of cash. The building materials were in high demand at that time which led to the rise in their prices. When I received the second transfer, I spent 25000 KES on both construction labor and some of the building materials that I did not manage to purchase with the first transfer. It is the pride of every parent to provide a reasonable shelter for their children, and I am not left behind after Give Directly came to my rescue. My household items will no longer be ruined by rain and rodents as was the case before. 3500 KES I spent on my children's clothes to replace the old worn out that they had. I have never owned livestock but on several occasions, I have seen my neighbors sell some of their livestock to raise school fees for their children. This motivated me to start investing in livestock therefore, I bought a goat for rearing at 3000 KES. They multiply first because they give birth twice a year. Out of the remaining 20000 KES, I paid 2600 KES in school for my child sot hat I could clear the balance he owed the school and spent 17000 KES on foodstuffs that can feed my family for quite some time.

It was a cool evening as usual and I was taking rest at home after a long tiresome day. Since I did not have any engagement, I was just scrolling through messages on my phone in order to reduce boredom. Unexpectedly, I saw a Mpesa message pop up on my phone screen. Being driven with curiosity, I hurriedly opened up the message to get its content. Amazingly, it was the GiveDirectly's transfer. I felt extremely happy and counted myself very fòtunate because that marked a new beginning in my life. That evening I strongly believed that GiveDirectly's impact on my life would always be fresh in my mind and among my family members.

The biggest difference in my life since I began receiving my transfer is being able to build a new house. The house I had been living in previously was in a bad condition. It was always leaking and small to accommodate us all. However, I had to live in it because I did not have any source of income. I only rely on subsistence farming which sometimes fail due to unpredictable rainfall pattern. All through my life, I had never imagined I could one day build a bigger house since I have been living in an extreme poverty.

From my most recent transfer, I spent about KES 25,000 on buying iron sheets for building a new house. Previously, I had been desiring to build a house but I could not do so due lack of a reliable source of income. My daily wages had been only sufficient for my household's upkeep as well paying school fees for my school going children. I also spent KES 10,000 to pay school fee for my children who are in primary school. I opted to build a new house because the previous one was very small and leaking whenever it rained.