We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
53150 KES ($435 USD)
access_time 2 years ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
Since my son in college will be done with school in one year, I will have a chance to invest the money from my milk business to start rearing chicken, this will be a good investment since the amount of money required to start is not as much as most businesses.
With as little as ksh 10000, I will comfortably start off and my son will be helping me out until I stabilize.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
Given that we all have different needs, it was really good that Give Directly decided to give us the money individually and unconditionally.
This created a lot of financial responsibility among families and we got a chance to deal with our needs and situations in different ways.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I used the second transfer to pay school fees for one of my sons in college using ksh 36000, this was the only we had then he will be done with college in about one year.
Since I did not want to have money without an actual plan, I bought enough food for the family and a cow to ensure that I did not end up wasting any of it.
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($475 USD)
access_time over 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was around 11 am while in my garden planting sukuma wiki vegetables. That's when I received a message alert on my phone. On checking, I confirmed to have received KES 55,000 from GiveDirectly. Out of excitement, I left the garden for my house where I relayed the good news to my equally excited husband.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The biggest difference in my daily life since I started receiving the transfers is the clearance of school fees for my daughter in college. As a result, she can now concentrate on her studies.
Secondly, I am grateful because through the transfers I accessed medication for the treatment of goiter. As a result, I am now energetic to do more heavy tasks.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I am a mother of two and to feed my family, I rely on my husband who works as a lorry loader. Additionally, I also do small-scale farming of maize, beans, and sweet potatoes.
During enrollment, my main goal was school fees payment. Therefore when I received my transfers, I spent KES 26,000 on clearance of last term school fees for my daughter in a technical college. This is because she had arrears and getting her fees was quite a challenge. As a result, she can now concentrate fully on her studies.
Secondly, I spent KES 15,000 on medication for a goiter on my neck which has been growing for the past four years. This has affected my work productivity because I can not do heavy duties.
Lastly, I spent KES 3,000 on a bag of maize which has sustained us for the past month. The remainder will sustain us for two the next two weeks. The rest I spent KES 1,500 on the latest clothing.
Enrolled
access_time almost 3 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
I am a small-scale farmer engaging in crop and livestock production. My ambition is to be a renowned large-scale dairy farmer. Feeding my livestock is time-consuming and energy-draining because I cut nappier grass manually.Receiving this money will enable me buy a chaff cutter .This will maker my work easier as well as allow feeding of livestock with enough feeds.These cows will therefore give more yields due to adequate and timely feeds .I will use KES 50000 to buy a chaff cutter .
What is the happiest part of your day?
The yields we harvested from our maize field in the past 6 months have brought happiness to my life.We harvested 4 bags of maize from the 0.3 acres of our land.This will take us through a period of 3 months without hunger.With this am happy because I can plan and engage in other activities such as payment of school fees .
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
Financial constraints are the biggest challenge am currently facing. The outbreak of covid 19 rendered some of our employers jobless. This has greatly affected our households because we depended on them for casual jobs such as weeding, fencing, and planting to earn a living. Getting an average of KES 100 a day is a big challenge currently, there are more than 3 days in a week when we can stay without touching or having even KES 20 within the household.Before Covid we had people who came with lorries to collect sand from this area.This used to earn us an average of KES 300 per day.Currently these people do not come and hence we suffer a lot in terms of food shortage and inadequacy of household basic needs.
