My new goal is to start a business selling clothes. My husband is working in a place where they are selling a certain type of clothes, and I have not seen anyone in my area who has started a business selling those types of clothes. I have some of those clothes that they sell and most people in my area usually ask me where I got those types of clothes from. I hence see a business opportunity that I would like to venture in. I do not have a job despite having trained as an early childhood development (ECD) teacher. The business will thus enable me to get some income.

GiveDirectly did well by deciding to come up with this program of helping the less fortunate in society. The transfers that they gave the people changed their lives for the better. Some people even didn't have houses but now they have them. We are thus so much grateful for this. I, however, would recommend to them to please reconsider enrolling those that were left out. Although they might be rules that were being followed during enrollment, I would kindly urge them to please reconsider since some people were left out yet are in dire need.

We spent KES 31000 of the recent transfer on buying a 5000-liter water tank. We bought the tank because, in our area, we usually experience a prolonged dry season which usually makes the nearby rivers dry up. One thus has to go to the main river which is very far to fetch water. We do not have a donkey to help us carry the water and hence we have to carry it on our backs. We had a water tank but its capacity is small. The water usually gets finished after a few days when the rains are gone. We have always wanted to buy another tank but due to financial constraints, we were not able to. My husband is casually employed at a cloth-selling shop and I am currently jobless. I used to teach at a private school but when I gave birth to my youngest child, I never went back. The money that we used to get paid is little and it would have only been enough to pay the child's caregiver if I had hired one. We are thus happy and with no worries, because it has rained and we have managed to collect enough water for our consumption and animal use. I also spent another KES 12000 on clearing my college fees balance. I did so so that they could give me my certificate. I wanted the certificate so that I could apply for jobs. I am glad that I got it and I have managed to apply for a job at the county government. With the remaining transfer money, we used it in buying food and some more clothes for our children.

It was 2 in the morning and we were asleep. Suddenly, I heard my phone ringing jolting me from my sleep. I wondered what the SMS is all about and hence I decided to check my phone just to satisfy my curiosity. I could not believe my eyes when I read the SMS which was indicating that we had received KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I was so happy on seeing the message. My husband who was asleep too woke up and asked me what was going on. I showed him the SMS and he was so happy too. Due to too much excitement, we lost our sleep as we talked about how the transfer is going to be of great help to us in achieving our plans.

The transfer has brought a very big difference in our lives as a family. We were able to buy a few bags of maize that are going to sustain us for a while. Maize crops do not usually do well in our area due to less rains. We hence usually incur the cost of buying maize on a daily basis. With the few bags we no longer incur that cost daily. Other than that, we were able to clear school fees for our children and we were also able to subdivide the land through fencing. With having done the fencing, we can lock up the cow to graze in one part of the farm as the grass grows on the other part. Above everything, we were able to buy a cow that we had always desired to have. Having done all these with the transfers, we now have some peace of mind since we never thought we will be able to achieve them since we didn't have the money. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for the support.

We spent our first transfer money on various things that were important to us. We first bought a cow at KES 28000. We then spent KES 15000 on paying school fees for our two children, one who is in secondary school and the other who is primary school. Other than that, we spent KES 8000 on buying fencing poles and barbed wire for fencing our land. With the remaining amount of money, we used it in buying maize for our consumption and some clothes. Buying a cow was our biggest priority upon receiving the transfers. This is because we didn't have one before and also because the cow was going to be of great help to us. We will be able to get milk for our consumption and for sale when it calves. Apart from that, we can also sell some of the cow's calves and use the money on important things such as paying school fees for our children. We usually incur the cost of buying a litre or two of milk daily which is costly to us. We didn't have the money to buy the cow before, my husband works as a security officer while as for I was a pre-school teacher until recently when I decided to leave the job because I have a young child. The money that we make is not much and most of it usually goes to the payment of school fees for our two children. We are hence so much grateful to GiveDirectly because we were able to achieve one of our dreams which is owning a cow.