Because of the transfer I received from GiveDirecly, I have fewer worries and stress about being able to provide food, clothing and education for my children. I sell charcoal to earn a living while my husband transports passengers on a motorbike. When he was employed by someone else, our income would be KES 3,000 a week. This amount was not enough to cater for our living expenses. We especially worried about where we would get money to educate our three children. With the transfer that we received, we purchased a motorbike and he can now earn more money. Our income has increased to KES 4,000 on a good day, and we can meet our family's needs. We also completed the construction of a new, spacious house. Before, we lived in one that was small and run-down. We are very grateful to GiveDirecly.

In my opinion, GiveDirecly has done well by sending us unconditional cash transfers that have improved our lives a great deal. We have set up businesses, built decent houses and fed our families. There isn't anything that GiveDirecly has not done well.

The lack of a stable source of income has been a major challenge in my family, which has caused my husband and me a lot of stress. Until recently, he used to ferry passengers for his employer to earn a living, and I sold charcoal. Our income would only be KES 3,000 a week. This money was not enough to cater for our living expenses including food, clothing and school fees for our family of five. We were happy to receive this transfer from GiveDirecly which enabled us to purchase a motorbike worth KES 40,000. My husband now earns money by ferrying passengers and can earn KES 4,000 a day. Furthermore, we spent KES 13,150 on completing the construction of our new house. My family now lives in a spacious, modern house, as opposed to the previous one which was rundown.

I was at my compound washing clothes when my mobile started ringing loudly. I opted to stop the task I was handling and concentrated on the message notification. Since I am illiterate, I asked my son to check its content. I was super excited after telling me that it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I had patiently been waiting for this money and I even thought it was a scam during the enrolment process.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I am now a proud owner of a decent house that can accommodate all my family members. Back in the day, it was so tough because our house was very small and its condition was not pleasing at all. One could clearly see everything that was going in the house from outside. Besides, my spouse being the family's breadwinner he used to strain a lot but eventually, he couldn't make ends meet most of the days. In a day a good day, he could earn KES 200 which was too little even for the family's daily bread leave alone renovating the house. Therefore we had to squeeze ourselves into the small house since we had no alternative. However, I have always been hopeful that my life would change no matter how many years it would take. Luckily enough GiveDirectly answered my prayer by supporting my household financially. I am now a proud mother because we are sleeping in a decent shelter with no more worries about security and even the heavy downpours.

Since I have been longing to sleep in a better shelter, I spent a larger fraction of the first transfer on buying building materials such as pieces of iron sheets, building poles, nails, and timber. I had intended to construct a new house becasue the initial one was small and in critical condition. Also, I paid school fees for my son in advance to avoid being sent home regularly due to the fees arrears. With the little that had remained, I bought foodstuffs for my family and we are grateful as a family becasue we no longer skip meals like before. Besides we have been taking a variety of meals like rice, beans, meat among others.