I mostly spent the three recent transfers to construct my new house and procure food. I contracted a carpenter to make three windows for the new structure and paid him 4,500 KES. Currently, I am required to clear a balance of 3,000 KES for the windows to be ready for installation. Additionally, I look forward to deducting half of the upcoming transfers to buy cement and hiring a builder to facilitate the fitting task. On the other hand, I used 4,500 KES to purchase food and guarantee the daily provision of meals to my family.

I am farmer who mainly plant cassava, maize and cowpeas but this season its been on the low because of change of climate,with no rains.My recent transfer was spent in paying windows for my house which cost me kshs 3500 per window but have been paying in installments. I used kes 2500 to pay partly and kes 500 to buy maize floor and vegetables .

I used my first transfer of KES 1200 to buy food. For my second and third transfer I have been buying materials to complete the construction of my house that had stalled. The last transfer for example, I completed KES 1500 balance for one window which I had deposited the same amount the previous month. I used the rest KES 1500 USD to buy cement.

Coming into contact with Give Directly honestly seemed God sent because at the time drought had really affected me and i would at time spend the day hungry and wake up to the same situation so i am very grateful for this.

For the longest time i have been trying to fix my house, with each transfer i try and continue with the project and so far i wanted to install the floor and windows. The mason advised me to fix the windows so i bought two windows which were made of hardwood and it cost me around KES 3500. I paid KES 2000 to the labourer and due to the ongoing drought i bought 6 packets of maize flour. I also used my savings because the money was not enough to cater for everything.

I was and still am extremely happy because before coming to contact with GiveDirectly I had plans to build a better house for my family and I, so I sold some of my land and began the project but unfortunately the money was not enough and I had to stop my project therefore leaving my house half done. Then out of nowhere I find out about this program and organization, and so I have hope that eventually with these funds being allocated I will finally manage to finish up on my house and also manage to buy some livestock that will help me in plowing my land because at the moment, I have none and I have to borrow my neighbours from time to time to assist me with their cows so that I can till my land.

For me it would be the fact that I could afford a meal for my family, because I happen to be a subsistence farmer so I plowed my land previously with the anticipation that it would rain and I would gain some harvest, but unluckily our area experienced drought and all the crops withered away leaving me with nothing to rip thus the scarcity in food.

After receiving the funds I decided purchase food for my family since at the time it seemed more of a basic need compared to anything else. I bought a sack of maize flour which cost me one thousand and kenyan shillings which would last my family and I a while before it finished and I also bought vegetables that cost me two hundred kenyan shillings.