I had plans of starting a business so as to be able to help in providing for my family. The business venture I had in mind was building and open a restaurant. I was good at cooking and so I thought it fit to get involved in something that would be more or less a walk in the park for me. I planned to ensure I had money to first build the property where the restaurant will be located and then after I bought all the material I could prepare different meal like donuts, tea, beans and other legumes, greens like kales and cabbage and lastly our most common staple food popularly known as " Ugali " just to mention a few. Apart from that I wanted to ensure that I paid tuition fee for my child since he was on the verge of getting kicked of school.

My husband was the bread winner of our family and a while back he fell very ill and was almost paralysed. Looking after the family and taking care of its needs ended up falling on my shoulders. I needed to be brave and smart enough to keep my kids in school and ensure there was always a meal on the table. Before meeting GiveDirectly I had absolutely no idea where to start from but after coming to contact with the program I have managed to cater for the most important interests of my family and also made sure to put in place projects that would enable us to survive, for instance starting a business. I have nothing but praise and admiration for the organization and absolutely nothing to complain about.

Now after receiving my second transfers I decided that it was time to buy material for the building of the restaurant. I went ahead and bought a hundred pieces of timber for KES 8,000 and bought fourteen pieces of iron sheets for KES 12,800. This items would at least allow me to begin the process of building the restaurant and help the vision coming to life. After that I decided to look after issues concerned with the nourishment of my family and myself where I spent KES 7,000. I went ahead and bought double bags of maize which contained a dozen packets each, two sacks of wheat flour which cost me KES 4,000 and used the rest of the funds for other items that included sugar, salt, cooking oil and even tea leaves. Apart from that, four days prior to receiving the money my son had been kicked out of school, so when I got the money I paid KES 4,000 in tuition fee so my son would go back to school. Lastly I took KES 10,000 and put it away in my savings account because I was letting the money accumulate in order to help me raise enough capital for the business I was about to start.

I remember I was just relaxing at home when I received the transfer message. I was so excited since I knew that I was about to achieve my goals.

I am happy that I am able to provide for my family without having to struggled as much as I used to do before receiving the transfers.

When my husband was healthy and productive, life used to be a bit easier as he was capable of providing for our eight children although not fully. Life took a different turn ever since he became sick and unable to work. Since I was a housewife then, knowing how to wake up and hustle to provide for my family wasn't an easy task. I have to bear all the family responsibilities and the average weekly income of Ksh 500 that I earn from selling charcoal isn't enough to cater for all the bills. I had thought of open a local kiosk hotel where I would cook and sell local food but I didn't have capital for that. Being enrolled in the program was a dream come true as I knew I would achieve my goal. I spend Ksh 2000 of my recent transfer to build a local kiosk, Ksh 6800 to buy bed, Ksh 2000 to pay school fees for my children and looking forward to spend the balance to repay my torn mattress and start my business.