My life is different than how it would have been had I not received the transfer. This is because I was able to acquire a dairy cow and pay school fees for my son using the transfers. Due to this, I have been able to gather for our daily needs on time using the income from milk sales. Also, my son has been able to continue with his studies and will be sitting for his examinations soon.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well by giving out financial aid and I do not see anything that they do not do well.

When I received my transfer, I spent KES 30,000 to pay school fees for my son in college. I settled on this so that he would be allowed to continue with his studies. Using the remaining amount, I bought a dairy cow worth KES 25000 after topping up some amount. This will act as a reminder of GiveDirectly and whenever I earn an income from the sale of surplus, I will be feeling the impact of GD in our lives. In addition, this income will enable me to meet some of our basic needs on time.

I was at home having lunch with my family when I heard the SMS notification on my phone. I decided to check it and I could not believe what I saw because I had never received such a large sum of money in my M-Pesa account before. I was so happy and I did not miss telling my family what the excitement was all about. They were so happy to hear this and they confirmed the good news for themselves. We rejoiced and even forgot for a while that we were having lunch. We then prepared ourselves and my son and I left to go and withdraw the money.

This transfer has brought a big difference in our lives as a family. It has enabled me to buy another cow that is going to help me a lot. I will be able to have a constant supply of milk for sale and my family’s consumption. This way, I will be able to maintain the customers that I have and I will have a constant income. The two bags of maize that I bought will enable us to have something to eat for a while. I will hence not be having worries about what my family is to eat. The cushions that I bought for the two chairs have enabled us to have more space that our guests can comfortably sit on. The clothes have also made us look good and our children are so happy about this because they were also able to have some for themselves.

The transfer from GiveDirectly has helped me and my family in various ways. I bought another cow with part of the money. I also bought two bags of maize and some cushions for the two chairs in my house that did not have them. The transfer also enabled us to buy some clothes for ourselves and our children. I still have some money with me that is helping me in buying small household items like sugar, soap, etc. I decided to use the money to buy another cow because I usually depend on selling milk to earn income. At times the cows that I have stop lactation and hence they dry. This hence results in me lacking milk for sale and my family’s consumption. The cow that I bought will help us to at least have a constant supply of milk because when one cow is dry, there will be at least another lactating one. Buying another cow has not been easy for me to do because I have never had a large sum of money that was going to enable me to do so. The money that I have been getting from the sale of milk has mostly been going to the purchase of food and paying school fees for my children.