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 biggest difference in your daily life.
Having two dairy cows has really changed my life completely. I had been longing to own them for a long time but due to my financial status, I could not afford it. I am now glad for the financial support from GiveDirectly because it enabled me to fulfill one of my dreams. The cows will assist me in many ways considering that I am a widow and I don't have a stable source of income. I am now planning to quit the casuals jobs that I have been doing and concentrate on agriculture. I believe the cows will be producing plenty of milk and I will start a business of selling the milk in different markets. This will really uplift my living standards. I will send my children back to school because they have dropped out since my spouse passed on. I will be able to cater to my family's basic needs without straining and the remaining few liters will be for my children's consumption. This will make them healthier. I will also use the cow dung as fertilizer on my farm.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was around 6 am when I was cleaning my compound as usual. Then my elder son broke the news that I had been sent my first transfer. At first, I thought it was a scam. I remember asking him to show me the message because I couldn't believe him. I was so excited to know the truth. I left everything I was doing and started planning how I would constructively spend the money.
What did you spend your first transfer on?
I spent part of my first transfer on buying two dairy cows. It has been my long-time desire to own one. When I got the means to buy them I didn't hesitate. In addition to that, I also bought a few bricks, several bags of cement and sand with an intention to renovate my semipermanent house. Its walls had cracks and I always felt unsafe especially during the rainy seasons. Since I built another house, I now sleep peacefully. Apart from that, I used a little amount of money to hire people to cultivate my farm since it was a planting season. Before then, I used to till my land on my own which was tiresome. I used to get very low harvests since I couldn't till a big piece of land. I used the remaining amount of money to buy other household items and enough foodstuff for my family.
Enrolled
access_time 5 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Since agriculture is no longer viable in this area, my desire has been to diversify into other sources of income. However, with no capital, it remained only as a wish. Now that I'm one of the beneficiaries of this program, I see myself finally accomplishing that desire and ultimately becoming self-reliant. And to achieve that, I intend to start up a small business of selling vegetables and fruits, -it will cost approximately ksh 30000 establish. Having this up and operating will earn me a daily income that can sustain my family with much ease. For once, I will no longer need to borrow money to buy food. Apart from business, livestock rearing is another area that I will invest heavily on. Hence, the remaining part of the transfers will go there. Having all this will boost my financial stability and that is what receiving this money means to me.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Evening is the happiest part of my day. I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren after school. It is also the best moment to rest after spending the day attending to household duties and farm work.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Inadequacy of alternative sources of income has been the biggest hardship in alive. Even since my husband died 6 years ago, I have been depending on agriculture alone. When he was a life, he used to work in Mombasa and that is where we depended on. Switching to farming was the only means to survive, however, I met a lot of challenges - notable one been a harsh climatical condition that has been a great deterrent year in year out. Like this year, for instance, I cultivated 3 acres of land but was only able to reap 90kgs of maize, while in actual sense it should be over 900kgs on typical weather. This has resulted in food insecurity and such yields cannot sustain a family for more than 2 months thus we are forced to purchase maize flour (a packet goes for ksh110) from the shop for a single meal and that means in a day we need 3 of them. With no other source of income, sustaining that is almost impossible and as a result, we occasionally lack food.
