I would love to build a bigger house since the one we are currently living in is small and and in a bad state.

After receiving the transfers from GiveDirectly, the living standards in every household in the village improved significantly. I am grateful that they provided us with an equal amount and the freedom to spend it as we saw fit in our households. Unlike material goods, monetary assistance allowed us to make informed spending decisions that had a direct impact on our daily lives. I have nothing to complain about after the entire process because GiveDirectly kept all of its promises.

I spent KES 36000 of the second transfer on buying a dairy cow which I added to one that I had before and one sheep at KES 8000. I am hoping that the two dairy cows will increase milk production in the future. This Increase will not only cut the cost of buying milk but also be an additional income generating source when I sell the surplus. I spent the last bit of the transfer buying food, household foodstuff, an extra piece of furniture, and kitchenwares that were missing in our home. I am grateful for the support from GiveDirectly and hope to keep improving the few projects we started. I also bought some new clothes for my two children.

I was at home in the evening fencing my farm, When I heard a message tone from my phone. I ignored the message because lately; I had been receiving callback requests from my friends who want to have social conversations at my cost. As I was winding up and picking up my tools, I saw my wife walking towards me hastily with a weird grin on her face. When she reached where I was and saw the surprised look, she calmly asked me whether I had received the money from Give directly. I stopped what I was doing and reached into my pocket to find my phone immediately. I was happy that had received the money. My wife jumped up and down with excitement and I was still shocked because I had never received so much money on my phone.

The biggest difference in my life is that food has been a challenge, but with the support funds that bought my family a dairy cow, we have been able to sell at least three liters of milk for KES 100 which is the minimum required to meet our daily expenses.

My biggest issue was that we had a dairy cow that was giving us so much milk, but because of its heifer calf, the milk was less because the calf grew. The dependency on the earnings from the milk sold decreased until we had nothing to be sold and not enough for our daily consumption. Currently, I am not employed and so is my wife. The family depends on the livestock we have and the small farm where we plant maize and beans. It has been a struggle because the climate has changed and affected our harvest this season. When I received the cash transfer, I bought a dairy cow that had just had its calf for KES 36,000 and a bag of 100kg maize for KES 4000. Food has become expensive, and I was forced to spend another extra KES 5000 for other food items like sugar, cooking oil, and a bag of 4kg rice, which would last my family of four members for the next three months. The remaining amount was spent to buy my entire family new clothes in celebration of the support funds.