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
53150 KES ($467 USD)
access_time almost 3 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I do not have any new goals in life at the moment since I want to concentrate more on dairy farming. This is because the land we have is small such that if we decide to plant some maize, it will not last us for a month after harvesting them. Specializing in dairy farming will lead to an increase in my income from the sale of surplus. This will enable me to meet our basic needs on time and pay school fees for my children.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
GiveDirectly did well because they were not biased in enrolling people in the community. Their officers also showed respect to everyone they interacted with and were always very jovial. I did not see anything wrong with their work and I, therefore, encourage them to continue with the same spirit.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We used to sleep in the same room with my chickens since the house we had was one room and I did not have a chicken coop. Due to this, we always had to wake up very early in the morning to avoid chickens from walking on our beddings. I am happy that I was able to build a chicken coop worth KES 10000 upon receiving my transfer, spent KES 30000 to buy a dairy cow and KES 9000 on three goats. I will be using money from the sale of milk when it calves to pay school fees for my three children in school. The goats are the live assets that I will sell when faced with financial constraints. I spent the rest of the amount on foodstuffs.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($500 USD)
access_time 3 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was a few minutes past 10 am as I was feeding my livestock when I heard a message notification on my phone and upon checking, I realized that it was the transfer GiveDirectly had promised to send to us during enrollment. I felt very happy for being among those who had qualified for the financial aid and I hurriedly completed what I was doing then went home to inform my family. They were all overwhelmed with joy for the good news and we spent the whole day planning on how best to use our transfer before withdrawing it the next day.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The transfer from GiveDirecly has changed my life and that of my family for the better. We used to live in a small house a month ago and welcoming people to my home was a hard decision I had to make whenever someone wanted to visit me as they would not have a place to sleep in comfortably as they had to sleep in our kitchen. Once we received the transfer from GiveDirecly, things changed as I have been able to complete the construction of a new, spacious and comfortable house.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Since I have been longing to sleep in a better shelter, I spent KES 36000 from my first transfer on buying building materials such as iron sheets, building poles, nails, and timber. I settled on constructing a new house becasue the initial one was small. Also, I used KES 7000 to buy a matress, bed and two blankets to replace the old ones that we were using and also spent KES 5000 on seats. With the amount that remained, I spent KES 3000 on foodstuffs for my family and we are grateful because we no longer skip meals like before and invested KES 4000 on poultry through buying 10 chicken.
Enrolled
access_time over 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money means I will build a spacious house and start my poultry and dairy project that will help me educate my children in future.
My husband is a casual laborer in Nairobi and what he earns only caters for our daily expenses at home, I am also a house wife and I do casual labour in my neighbouring village. This only help us get our daily bread. I have been doing this for along time in my life.
I plan to spend 400 dollars in building a spacious house for my family , use 300 dollars to start a poultry project and spend the rest for buying at least 2 dairy cows.
What is the happiest part of your day?
My happiest part of the day is in the morning when I wake up and go to farm , I love doing farming like vegetables, Sweet potatoes and beans, so in the morning I am happy when I go to the farm and start my job and in the evening I get something to eat.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
I leave in a small house which always make me feel ashamed when I have visitors, my husband and I have to look for a place to accommodate our visitors, and this brings alot of worry to me in the society, my children are always embarrassed at all time and keep asking me about the house.
