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 moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was at around 5pm, I was still engaged at my workplace, I heard my phone ringing and vibrating, upon checking the message I saw a Mpesa notification showing that I had received money from GiveDirectly, it was the best news that I had received in a long time, words cannot explain how happy I was, when I was promised of the unconditional transfer I had planned on how I would spend the money, I am so happy that GiveDirectly kept their promise.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
My family and I are so happy that the transfer lifted our lives amazingly, I no longer worry about the leaking roof because I was able to construct a kitchen house, on top of that I am now able to harvest clean water from the iron sheet roof, the impact is evident in our home, thus we are forever indebted to GiveDirectly.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
Upon receiving my transfer, I knew that I had to put it to good use, I saw it as a lifetime opportunity for me to better my life, I am a father of eight children, I work in masonry on a casual basis, therefore I used KES 19,000 in buying iron sheet to construct a decent kitchen house for my family which was growing, the house that I had before was small and the roof was leaking, I had no money to build a house before due to school fees responsibilities, I then used KES 10,000 in paying school fees arrears for my children, lastly I bought sofa set cushions, I am forever grateful for the support that lifted my living standard amazingly.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
We are peasant farmers and rely on menial jobs to be able to provide for our family. We are blessed with 8 children who look up to us for their education. It is a struggle raising such a big family without a sustainable income. The eldest gave birth last year, further worsening the already bad situation and increased the burden of dependency. The occurrence scattered our hopes into the wind.She had just finished her tailoring course via apprenticeship and we had high hopes for her to support her siblings. It is against this backdrop that we intend to buy her a sewing machine to start her off for the job. This will at least resuscitate our hope on her. The sewing machine will cost KES 70000. We will use the rest of the money to replace the roof of our grass-thatched kitchen with iron sheets.
What is the happiest part of your day?
In our village, we have a grouping for pooling resources together. It is a merry-go-round kind of arrangement. Sometimes last year in June 2021, it was our turn and we manage to get a contribution of KES 38000, which we used to purchase a heifer. It has since grown and it is about to calf. We were elated for achieving our goal of adding another dairy cow to our herd.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Life is tough, we wake up to new challenges each day but the mother of all is raising school fees for our children. It has given us sleepless nights since we have no regular income. We have four children who are in various secondary schools, sometimes times we are assisted by the Constituency Development Fund bursary though it is never enough. Other times we hold fundraising . We pay approximately KES 50000 per term for the 4 children, which is a tall order for us.
