Since I received the first transfer, I had been much grateful for the transformation I have witnessed in my household. I had planned a lot that I needed to do and I am glad that I finally accomplished it before exhausting both transfers. Even though I did all I needed, I still have a recurring obligation to pay school fees for my three children till they are done schooling. This may not be a new goal since I paid a huge part of the transfer to clear the arrears and I am glad that I am working on the following terms at the moment.

GiveDirectly did a great thing in our village right from the entry-level to the last date when they left. The education and enlightenment about the project before being enrolled were so instrumental that everyone adhered to the guidelines, and I am happy that there were no quarrels or fights reported from any household over the money. Just like any other person in the village, I have nothing negative to say but am grateful that a lot has changed over the past few months due to the support from GiveDirectly.

Living right at the border of the forest in a region that is adversely affected by droughts has left me with no option but to venture into the firewood selling business. The struggle to fetch from the forest though is so hard especially when I had to hire the means of transportation after obtaining an entry permit to fetch the firewood from the forest. On enrollment, I had a plan to obtain a donkey but the first transfer went to the urgent projects. On receiving the second one, I purchased a mature donkey at KES 9000 that has since been efficient in the transportation of firewood out of the forest. I am glad that I am no longer spending any coin on hiring one from the neighborhood but instead lending it out whenever a neighbor needs it at a cost. I also paid KES 8350 for all my three children's school fees, obtained a new piece of furniture for my newly constructed house, foodstuff for my household that included dry cereals and rice, and spent the remaining amount on clothing for my family of five worth KES 12000, and saved the remaining to serve any emergency and replenishing of any exhausted item in the household.

It was around 8 o'clock in the morning when I received a message notification on my phone. Upon reading it's contents, my heart was filled with joy. I immediately knew that my dream of building a more spacious house for my family would finally come true.

Before GiveDirectly came for enrollment, I had a dream of building a bigger house for my family but had not been able to due to financial constraints. Due to this, my children and visitors had to endure sleeping in my small grass-thatched kitchen whose roof was always leaking during the rainy season. This was because we could not sleep with them under the same roof as they are all grownups. My recent transfer enabled me to build a more spacious house hence I no longer worry about hosting some visitors and my children's condition at night. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for changing my living standards through the transfer.

I used to live in a small two room house and since I could not sleep under the same roof with my children, they used to sleep in the kitchen. Mostly, they would get flu during the rainy season as the roof to my kitchen was leaking. When I received my transfer, I spent $ 400 to build a two bedroom house for my family. My children will be using our previous house as their bedroom and study room. Having built a more spacious house, I realized that I did not have enough seats and my living room looked like a hall. As a result, I decided to purchase two sets of seats at $ 40. In addition to this, I bought one sack of maize and other household necessities at $60. Using the remaining $ 47, I bought some decent clothes for my family as a way of celebrating the good news.