I am planning to start raising livestock like chicken and goats. I have been raising the livestock although in small number.In the coming year and beyond, I will sell out some of the calves to get money for the chicken. Raising chicken is important as they can be sold when any emergency arises like medical. I have plans of starting a small business of selling ladies shoes. From the trend, ladies tend to buy on a daily basis and this leads to high demand, the profits from the business will be for paying the kids school fees.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps in planning as one is in a position to do something huge as compared to when the transfers are given in small instalments. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. To avoid household conflict, what needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration to the programs

Before the transfers, I never had cows before as I had no source of income. I used the transfers to buy female cows for kshs 35,000. I decided to buy female cows for milk production for my family's consumption and sale. I do casual work to earn a living and most of the time the pay is too little to cater for my basic needs, I do top it up with the money from selling milk and this has enabled me to take care of other basic needs like food, clothing and kids school fees. I used the remaining part of the transfers to buy a piece of three-seater furniture. I used to fear hosting friends and relatives as I never had enough seats for them, but my self-esteem has improved since I started receiving transfers from GiveDirectly.

It was on 11th May at around 5:00 pm when I received a message that confirmed the receipt of the first transfer from GiveDirectly. It was my first time receiving such a huge amount at once in my life. With my wife at home, we were so excited and had to celebrate after sharing the news. I could not withdraw the money at that moment but collected it after three days when I needed to start my projects.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the improved farming that I had been doing after obtaining a new machine that has made irrigation possible. It has been a challenge fetching water from the river, but after connecting the pipes that conveyed enough water to the farm, I found it easier and the much time that would be used then is no more.

I have been practicing small-scale farming, which was promising, but the operating cost was so high since I had to ferry water manually from the nearby river to the farm and apply it manually to the crops. The receipt of the first transfer was timely since I needed to expand my farming by introducing a pump that conveys water through horse pipes to the farm. With the first KES 25000, I obtained a new machine that came with enough pipes that were now well connected to the farm. My farm under the tomatoes plantation is now doing well and am not worried about the frequent droughts that have been striking our crops in the past. The new house that I furnished was under construction when I received the first transfer. I had to buy additional iron sheets that were still missing, obtain doors and windows, and also purchased nails that were used in the completion. I am happy and looking forward to bringing in a new piece of furniture for my new family of two.