I got two of my children who are studying in college and two others who are in high school. I was overwhelmed with the burden of paying school fees but I thank God that GiveDirectly came at the time when I needed help the most. I do retail business as well as farming but the earnings from it were never enough. I paid school fees with part of my first transfers and second transfers. Now, I have taken a breath after clearing school fees for the whole year and I need now to expand poultry farming so that I can be able to manage as well as operate my retail business. That would enable me to increase my revenue and help me on paying school fees for my children.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well by selecting us in our village. Most of us were struggling to see that our children have gone to school. Farming which we used to depend on is mostly affected by droughts and leaves us with nothing but to struggle. Almost every household benefited from GiveDirectly's transfers which is a good show of transparency. To me, I have nothing that GiveDirectly never did well.

For the second transfer which I received from GiveDirectly, I spent KES 40000 on paying college fees for my two children who are in college and I also spent KES 6000 on paying school fees for those who are in high school. The remaining amount of KES 9000, I spent on buying more stock for my retail business. I had spent part of the capital on buying foodstuffs for my family but I am glad that I was able to boost the business.

It was 8 am and I was at the farm busy farming when suddenly I heard my phone ringing hence notifying me of a new message. I stopped to check what it was all about. I was extremely happy when I read the SMS which was saying that I had received KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I thanked God for the blessing. My husband had already left for work, I hence came and told him in the evening and he was so happy too. We now knew that we were going to be able to achieve the plans that we had already made.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. The cows are no longer rained on having constructed the cowshed. We have also managed to collect rainwater having bought the water tank. We now have clean water for household use and we are no longer making the long trips to the river to fetch water.

We spent KES 22000 of our recent transfer on buying a 2300-liter water tank. We bought the water tank because we usually experience a prolonged dry season in our area which usually makes the nearby small rivers dry up. We are hence usually forced to a bigger river which is quite far from home. We hence bought the water tank so that we could use it in collecting rainwater for our household use. We also spent KES 4000 on constructing a cowshed for our cows. We decided to construct the cowshed so that the cows could have somewhere that they can stay when there are rains. We were not able to buy the water tank and construct the cowshed since we didn't have the money. Most of the money that we usually make from our businesses usually goes to the payment of school for our four children who are still in school. Two are in the university and two are in secondary school. Other than that, we also spent KES 3000 on tilling our piece of land for planting and we bought more chickens for rearing which cost us KES 2000. I still have some amount with me which I am planning to use in expanding our chicken house and to buy a wire mesh for placing all around the chicken house. I want to rear more chickens. The few chickens that I have been rearing have been of great help to me. I usually sell the eggs and use the money from the sales on buying household items such as sugar, soap, etc. We are thus grateful to GiveDirectly for their big support.