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.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was almost 5 pm and I was about to reach home when suddenly I heard my phone ringing hence notifying me of a new message. I checked it and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that it was an SMS indicating that I had received KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I could not believe it and hence I asked my helper when I got home to confirm to me what I had just seen. He gladly did it and soon after, we started hearing people in our neighborhood celebrating in joy as they talked about receiving the transfers. We joined in the celebration as we thanked God for the blessing. That day was definitely the happiest in our community.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference that the transfer brought into my daily life is that I managed to achieve my goal of building another decent house for myself. I will hence be able to rest and I will no longer have to suffer doing the hard work of mudding the house like before. I am also happy because I have a calf which is going to be of great benefit to me in the future and I have enough food to eat. I am thus thankful to GiveDirectly for uplifting my living standards.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent approximately KES 35000 on building another decent house for my myself. I decided to do so because I had for the longest time hoped to build one but I didn't have the money. I usually practice small-scale subsistence farming on my small piece of land. Sometimes the maize crops do not well and I am forced to depend on my children for food and other basic needs. Besides that, I am getting old and I am no longer able to mud the house that I have been living in. I am thus glad and grateful to GiveDirectly because they enabled me to achieve my goal with their transfer money. Other than the above, I spent KES 12000 on buying a calf which is going to be of great help to me in the future when it calves. With the remaining transfer amount, I bought food with it.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I have raised my eight children as a single parent with the last one completing school a few weeks ago. This has made me sell almost all the assets I had to pay for their school fee. As of now, I do not have any cows. I am also getting old, I cannot do farming or business like I used to do long ago. I depend on the older children to send me money for upkeep as well as doing subsistence farming of maize and beans. I plan to spend KES 40,000 to purchase one dairy cow, which will be purposely for subsistence milk production. For the rest of the amount, I will buy food and clothing.
What is the happiest part of your day?
A few weeks ago, my last-born son completed his secondary education. This made me very happy and proud. This has been one of the biggest goals of my life.. I'm now sure, all my children can stand on their own and comfortably raise their children.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The main challenge is financial constraints. I have strained a lot to see my children through school. My last born son just completed school, but we do not have any food or crops on the farm to depend on. We purchase almost all food items from the market, which is quite costly. Our farm is relatively dry, so it is not all seasons that we harvest.
