We have been living in weak, muddy, grass-thatched single room for quite a long time and my husband and I had wished to build our four children a decent house. Due to unreliable income, this has not been possible because the little income that my husband earns from selling construction poles, charcoal and working in farms can not afford to build a house. However, he has only been affording to provide the most basic needs and pay school fees for our four children. Being enrolled in the program was a good opportunity for me to step up and build my family a decent house which they can call home. Ever since I started receiving the transfers, I have been saving the whole amount towards the same. I have already managed to build a semi-permanent two rooms structure and I'm looking forward to roof it in few months time before the rainy season approaches. I thankful to GiveDirectly for the continued financial support.

In my opinion, Give Directly does well in empowering people financially. Giving people unconditional cash is of great economic impact which in a way also boosts people's self esteem.

I have four children in primary school and at the time when I received my transfer, they had been sent back home for KES 2000 examination fees. The money came right on time because had I not paid for them, they would have not been allowed to sit for the end-term examinations. This was a real relief. As a parent, I felt proud to see my children happy because they were able to sit for examinations. Part of the money I spent on some of the foodstuffs which we used to celebrate on Christmas day.

The message arrived early in the morning at around nine when I was washing the dishes and to say I was happy was an understatement because the previous night my children had actually gone to bed hungry so receiving the money meant I could get them a meal and I also went ahead to tell my husband that he could finally go to the school and speak to them since we could pay for some part of the debt.

This money has really helped me financially especially considering the fact that I had no hope that my children would manage to attend school since my husband has no permanent job and that is why just recently I decided to go to town and get a job as a house manager so that I could earn some money because I do not want my children starving anymore and hopefully in the future I plan to start my own business so that I can be independent and sustain myself financially.

After I received the money I went ahead to pay tuition fee for my four children and paid KES 200 for each of them which cost me KES 800 in total and I opted to pay tuition fee for them because due to the pending debts they had in school fees and had been home for almost a month just because I could not settle the debt and I was devastated that my children were missing out on their studies. Then I also decided to take care of nutrition for my family because on most occasions my children and I went to bed hungry and as a mother this really made me sad and hurt so I went ahead and bought three bags of maize flour which was KES 300 and for the remainder of the money which was KES 100 I bought kerosene for the lamps, a match box and a biscuit for my youngest child.