I am a widow, and life has not been easy since the passing one of my husband. Since his passing on, I have burnt down woods and trees to make charcoal and earn a living. I stopped doing that because of my deteriorating health status. Currently, I am jobless and depend fully on my children, who work in town as casual laborers. They too, are decrying of the poor economic conditions and as a result they sometimes cannot send me money for use back in the village. When I received my transfer, I spent a huge portion of KSH 1700 in buying food. I bought food in bulk so that it would last for a long and give me ample time to plan accordingly before buying food next. Besides buying the food, I spent the remaining amount to pay school fees for my grandchild, who was at home due to school fees arrears. His father, who works in town, could not pay because he had no money. I paid the arrears, and he went back and sat for this final exam. I hope he is going to pass well and proceed to the next class come may.

In my opinion, it does well by having zero instances of biasness and favoritism towards anybody. With this then we as villagers stand an equal chance of being enrolled into the program. A lot of people have applauded this and we are grateful that the transfers will help us in ensuring that we can uplift our lives.

I have always depended on my husband in terms of providing for the family. In the past few weeks, he did fall ill and I used the savings we had to take him to the hospital to seek medical attention. His medical situation worsened and was taken to the ICU and eventually he was pronounced dead on the second day. I am still in shock with the sudden death of my husband. All the money we had was used to clear the hospital bills. A few days before his death I received the transfer and I had initially planned to purchase some iron sheets that will be used in the construction of a new house for my husband and me but that did not happen. I instead spent the money on the burial plans of my beloved husband.

It was around 6 am morning. I was washing utensils. A friend of mine passing by told me about her receiving cash from GiveDirectly. I was anxious and could not wait any longer. I decided to go and check my phone to see if I had too received the cash. When I looked at my phone I found that I had received the cash. I was very happy I got excited to the extent that I did not complete washing the utensils.

Money has made a big difference in my life. My house is almost complete. By the end of the month God willing I will be having a house to call my own. I am very happy and excited. This money will make me a proud owner of a house. My mother is well now and it is all thanks to the money that helped me buy her medicine. The difference Is very big and I am happy about that.

I have been building my house since the start of the year. When the pandemic struck I lost my job and I lost my source of income. I did not have any other way to be able to complete building my house. It was stressful that I could not finish up building up my house. When I received the cash from GiveDirectly I decided to spend KSH 2000 to buy iron sheets so that I could finish building up my house. I also spent KSH 500 on buying food for my family since my food stock was dwindling. I also spent KSH 500 on medication. My mum was not feeling well at that time and I decided to go and buy her medicine from the chemist so that she could get better.