My new goal as of now is to buy some barbed wire and poles to use in fencing my compound. This is because other people's livestock has been destroying my crops when we're not at home. In addition, it will save us the hustle of looking after the livestock most of the time and tying them to one place when we want to go anywhere. I believe that achieving this goal will lead to an increase in our farm produce since we will dedicate most of our time farming instead of looking after the livestock that can graze on their own.

Our living standards were low before GiveDirectly came for enrollment. We used to dress poorly and eating three meals a day was like living large. With the transfer, we were able to buy decent clothes, stock food to last us for some time, and do some investments like buying livestock and investing in the business. This would not have been possible had GiveDirectly not given us unconditional cash transfer and I do not see anything that they do not do well.

I am a businessman operating a retail shop in our village and when I received my transfer, I decided to spend KES 20000 to restock it. This business had started going down ever since the outbreak of covid-19 and there are items that I did not have. Because of this, most of my customers had started going to other shops where they would get most of the items they needed. In addition, I spent KES 15000 building a kitchen for my family because we had been using a section of our sitting room in the main house as a kitchen. Because of this, making meals when having visitors was always a challenge and I am glad that this is no longer the case. I spent the remaining KES 12000 on food and clothes for the family.

I was with my spouse and other members of the family when I received an alert that confirmed the receipt of my first transfer. The moment I received the message, I could not react to it that first but after another message that came a minute after, I got curious and had to confirm what exactly it was. I was so excited on confirming that the money I had been expecting was finally in my acount. I informed my family that was equally excited. All through that day, every face in the village was covered with a wide smile and every talk could not end without hearing great words of appreciation. I also thanked God as we were finalizing our plans with my spouse and had to withdraw the next day as all I needed to purchase was not in the immediate shopping center.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the construction that is set to start this week. This will create an extra room for my children and anyone visiting our home. For a long time, we had been facing a lot of challenges whenever we have a visitor since the only house we had could not accommodate all my children and a visitor at the same time. I am grateful that GiveDirectly has finally opened a way for us, and we will soon be sleeping comfortably with my children in their room.

On receiving my first transfer, I had a lot to do with my family as we had been planning along since I was enrolled in the program. Based on the priorities that we had set, I obtained a bullock at KES17000 that will be useful in providing the much-needed labor on the farms since we needed one to pair it up with the existing bull to make a pair of oxen. We had been hiring oxen from the neighborhood whenever we prepare our lands, but getting one means a lot to us since we will be able to prepare our farms in time and hire out to the neighbors. I also added up KES18000 to the retail business that I had been running. With the scorching hot weather that has cost us a lot in the farming sector, our dependency had shifted fully to the shop and was slowly deteriorating as we would spend all the daily profits and stock as well. Restocking it was necessary at this time as I needed to see it grow and help my family in the future. With my family of seven, the small house that had been living in needed an extension. I had to obtain new iron sheets, some poles, and also paints to match the outside appearance. All these cost KES10000. The construction is soon starting as I was still waiting for the constructor who promised to start anytime this week. With the remaining amount, I set aside KES5000 to pay the labor charges once the construction work is complete, obtained foodstuff worth KEs3000, and used the remaining amount on clothing for my children.