Because the GiveDirectly transfers have helped reduce household expenses. From my carpentry income, I am now saving towards school fees payment for my son who's soon joining high school.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well to give cash enabling us to make our spending decisions. For me, GiveDirectly came with double blessings. This is because on top of the transfers it created for me employment. After all, as a carpenter, I have lots of building contracts since the transfers arrived.

When I received my second transfer I spent KES 25,000 on a young bull because it grows fast and can be sold later during financial emergencies like school fees. Secondly, I spent KES 12,000 on three goats because they thrive in our place. Also because they reproduce fast they will be a good source of income during a financial crisis. Thirdly, I spent KES 7,000 on two bags of maize. This will sustain my family for the next one month. This is because we have not harvested for the past 8 years. My household budget for KES 300 is on maize meals, milk, sugar, and soap. Additionally, I spent KES 5,000 on the settlement of milk and other food debts. This is because I had bought food items on credit when my wife gave birth. Lastly, I spent KES 5, 000 on the purchase of the latest clothing fashion for my family. I also spent KES 2500 on the purchase of carpentry tools to make my work efficient. This is because I have done carpentry work since 2016 but have been lacking most tools since I work temporarily.

I was with my wife at home that morning when a message came in bearing great news from GiveDirectly. This was the first transfer out of the two that we had been promised on enrollment. On showing her, she was so excited that she had to pray right there thanking God for the honored promise. We had a lot lined up for the transfer and any thought of missing it would have been very devastating to us. It was a great moment for us that we had to revisit our goals before collecting the money from the nearby shopping center.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the clearance of all the debts that I had both for my neighbor and the shop that we had been obtaining food from on credit. This has given me peace of mind since I can freely walk around d without any fear of those I owe asking me for their dues.

After aligning all that we had to accomplish before exhausting our first transfer, buying a heifer was a the top of the list. All along I had been having one lactating cow that its productivity could dry up at some point making us buy some liters from the neighborhood. This has been so expensive for our family of six. I then spent KES 25000 on buying a heifer that I am looking forward to alternating their breeding period in the future. I also settled a debt of KES8000 to my neighbor who had loaned me in the past three months, obtained foodstuff worth KES 6500 as we needed more maize to add to our store, rice, and also paid the already consumed maize that we had been obtaining from the immediate maize mill. With the remaining amount, I spent KES10000 on obtaining a second-hand solar panel, wet battery, and pieces of lighting equipment to replace the smaller one that I had been using in my household. It had been quite a challenge since they were not strong enough and the battery that I initially had would drain so fast that we had to pack it up with a latent lamp on most nights. I finally paid KES1200 tuition fees for my four primary school kids.