In the coming year and beyond, I am planning to start up a small business of selling groceries and second hand clothes. Before I lost my parents I was doing business and it collapsed since I used all the money I had to arrange for their burials. I have experience in such businesses, with the trend in my community , groceries and second hand clothes businesses have high demand since very few practice such. I will be saving the profits in order to buy a female cow for milk production for consumption and sale.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps in planning as one is in a position to do something huge as compared to when the transfers are given in small instalments. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. What needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household to avoid household conflict. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration to the programs.

I have been an orphan for the last three years. Before I was enrolled in this program, I was living at my uncles place since I never had any other place to be in. Immediately I received the transfers I built a house for kshs 30,000 . I am so happy and grateful to GiveDirectly as I have a place to call home now. I used kshs 21,000 to buy a water tank for storage to be used during drought.

The moment I received the money I felt so happy. I remember it was around 9 am. When I heard a ringtone message from my phone. I was at home taking breakfast. When I check it I felt so happy because I had never received such h amount of money before. I knew I would be able to build a better and spacious house for my family.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have purchased the building materials. I am ready to start the construction process. I live in a small house and this cannot host all the family comfortably. I have always wished to build a house but I didn't have the money. I depend on small-scale farming and the harvest is so small. I am not in a position to sell the surplus. whenever I have visitors I would host them outside the house and this so discouraging. When I received the transfer from GiveDirectly I felt so happy because I was able to purchase all the materials needed at once. I have hope that I will build a decent and a better house for my family. I will be able to sleep in a dusty free house. I will have enough space to host my visitors. I will no longer shy off like before. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has given me hope for better tomorrow.

I spent the money I received from GiveDirectly to purchase timber, poles, nails and iron sheets. I planning on building a better and spacious house for my family. We live in a small house which cannot host all the family comfortably. For the rest of the money, I bought food and clothes. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has changed our living standards.