I would love to have local breed chickens to rear for eggs and meat. The extra income would allow us to live a better life now and in the future, ensuring my children finish school and have a better future.

GiveDirectly discovered me deep in debt at my children's school. As a result, the vast majority of them were absent from school. I can now clear those and stay current. GiveDirectly gave us hope and the opportunity to maintain our dignity as parents by allowing us to provide for our children.

The transfers from GiveDirectly allowed me to accomplish quite a number of things. I bought school uniforms for my kids, bought and stocked up on food in the house, bought 3 female goats, 2 mattresses, and 1 bed. The bed and mattress are mine and my wife's, while the kids got the mattress alone. I set up a small business selling omena at $0.2 per pack to the neighbors. Raising eight kids means recurring expenses always arise. Other than the firstborn, who is employed as a boda boda operator in Garrissa, the rest are still quite dependent. Moving downwards, I have one in college in Mariakani pursuing a sewing course; another in Class 8, Grade 6, 4, 2, and nursery, all at Jira Primary School; and the youngest is but a year old. GiveDirectly funds allowed me to cover the $15 for tuition at the college and $5 for rent in Mariakani, for a total of $15, $2, $3, and $8. My wife helps with the omena business and tilling our 7-acre farm, where we grow cereals. The drought hasn't allowed us to farm much this year, though. On the side, I also burn wood and send the resulting charcoal to Mombasa, where I sell it for $5 at most. The math alone can tell you that without GiveDirectly, we weren't going to manage to accomplish all we did. GiveDirectly was the best thing to happen to us as a family, and we will be eternally grateful.

It was during the day, almost at 12 pm. As a charcoal-burner who had gone to look for wood in the nearby forest, my husband always accompanies me because of my fear of wild animals. As I took a break and sat next to him, I had a message tone from my phone and with so much eagerness I took it from my pocket to read the message. My heartbeat was so fast because I couldn’t believe the amount received in my Mpesa account. My excitement attracted my husband, who was not paying attention to what I was doing, and after he saw the message, we were all happy and went home. We came the next day to finish the charcoal burning exercise.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. This is because it has uplifted our living standards to a level that I never thought we were going to reach soon. I had my children attend their classes undisrupted due to school fees for the first time in many years. With the new bed and beddings, my husband and I can sleep like a log and I am not worried about my husband’s health issues worsening because of the coldness at night.

My husband has been supportive and was working with me on the charcoal burning exercise. He has been unwell for some time and so much has changed.it has forced me to be the breadwinner of a family of six children. One of my biggest challenges is paying all my children's school fees. I spent KES 20,000 on my son, who is in college, and KES 10,000 on the rest of his siblings who are in primary school. I have been sleeping on the floor and upgraded my bedroom and purchased a bed, mattress, and beddings for KES 11,000. Because of the struggle to make ends meet, I have been surviving on debts and KES 7000 was used to clear some of my debts. Finally, the remaining amount was used to stock foodstuff, because with the rains charcoal burning is difficult and not sustainable.