Paying school fees for my children has been an uphill task for me. This is because I depend on doing any available casual work whose pay is not lucrative. Two of my children are currently sitting for their final examinations at the secondary school level. It is my wish to continue supporting them in their education since I believe that they will pass. With this, their future will not be full of obstacles like mine where we survive by God's grace.

In my own opinion, GiveDirectly did well by sending the unconditional cash transfer to people in my village and by using friendly officers to enroll us. Because of this, I was comfortable relating with them and seeking more clarifications by asking some questions. In addition, I was able to achieve my major goal of providing my family with a decent shelter and paying school fees for my children. I did not find anything displeasing with GiveDirectly.

It had always been my wish to own some live assets but I had not been able to due to lack of funds since I usually spend all the money that I get on paying school fees for my four children. In our community, one takes pride in owning these assets, especially the dairy cows, and it is mostly used as the measure of wealth. Having sold all the livestock that I had and used the money in paying school fees for my children, I am glad that the transfer gave me an opportunity to purchase a heifer at KES 15000 and two goats at KES 8000. In addition, I spent KES 23000 to pay clear fee arrears for my children who had been sent back home and to buy for them school uniforms to replace the old ones that were torn. I depend on doing any available casual work and it is normally hard to find anything to do especially during the dry season. I spent the remaining amount on food and some home clothes for my children.

I was grateful when I first realized that I had received my first transfer. It was around 11 am when I checked my phone only to be greeted by the good news from GiveDirectly. I was at home with my spouse as my children were still at school. On informing her, she was so excited and we had to get ourselves ready to move out to the nearby shopping center where we withdrew all the transfers at once. Since we had all the plans in place already, we just had to obtain some construction materials that we needed on the same day.

The complete construction of two houses for my family is the biggest difference in my daily life. The bigger one is spacious enough for my children to share reading space and get room to sleep later at night. I am also grateful that we can collect enough water from the roof cutting the cost of buying or collecting it from the river that is so far from our home.

With my family of seven, we had been living in a small house built long ago and were getting older every day. I had constructed it on a piece of land close to the river and had been so problematic during rainy seasons. The surrounding would hold water creating a swampy environment right at my doorstep. This had not been healthy for my family especially the young ones due to mosquito infestation and also lack of dry space to play outdoor. On receiving the transfer, I decided to demolish the old structure and moved it a little further to a drier area at the corner of my piece of land. Constructing two houses cost me KES40000 as I needed both the kitchen and the main house. I also bought a sack of maize at KES4100 for my household to stop the perennial visits to the market where had been buying daily in smaller quantities. With the remaining amount, I ensured that every member of my household gets a new pair of clothing as it has been a long since we got a chance to change our wardrobe.