Previously, having three meals in a day was a luxury to me. This is because my harvest was meager and it could not last us up to the next harvesting season as a result of inadequate money to buy the required farm inputs. In addition, I did till my neighbor's farm for pay which could barely sustain most of my basic needs. Therefore, with all these struggles I was weak and thin which portrayed the levels of hunger and frustrations I was facing. Today, I'm happy and so proud of myself because currently I'm healthy and doing well because through the GiveDirectly transfers I am able to meet a lot of the needs that I lacked which includes; constructing a decent house, clearing school fee arrears for my children and most important acquisition of daily meals with ease.

In my opinion, GD does well by giving people cash and letting them decide on how spent it. This has brought a lot of improvements in the living standards of most people in the village because everyone was able to meet most of their pressing needs. On the other hand, GD doesn't do anything wrong.

I didn't have any livestock but I have always considered them as a way of investment. Since I come from an arid area is arid with poor pasture and shortage I, therefore, bought ten goats for rearing because they are easy and cheap to manage. At the same time, goats reproduce twice a year and in most cases, they give birth to more than one young one hence I believe by next year I'll a number of goats. Secondly, I had started constructing a house with the first transfer but I didn't complete because I ran out of cash. The first house was almost falling. This was so risky because I feared that it could fall on us at any time. I, therefore, spent part of the second transfer on both some of the building materials and on building labor. In addition to that my business collapsed almost a year ago because I couldn't sustain it since it was the only source of income thus I consumed most of the profits, I earned from it. I, therefore, used part of the money to revive the business and I'm glad it has picked. Part of the money I have saved for future use in case of an emergency.

Previously, before the transfers, having a well-balanced meal was not easy as we had one meal or none in a day. The biggest difference in my life is that my family and I are able to have a decent meal on a daily basis. I am honoured to see my children go to school without being sent home for school fees arrears. Anytime they were sent home, they would stay home for two weeks as I was still looking for the money to pay. Now, I have been able to disapprove my neighbours who used to mock me that I couldn't afford to educate my children.

I woke up early in the morning to go fetch water as usual and on coming back as I approached the entrance of my house, I saw my child running towards me with a happy face. When they got next to me, the eldest child among them told me GiveDirectly had sent money this morning at 3:00 AM. Upon getting the news, I felt very happy and laughed as I rejoiced with my children as the assisted me to carry the bucket that I had. Surely, that was a day I will never forget.

I spent the larger part of my transfer in starting construction of a two-roomed house which is still under construction by buying building materials. Looking at this house, I am still under disbelieve. This is because before I used to toil the whole day from harvesting olive oil leaves to vending charcoal which I could burn by myself and the income was little. That alone could not sustain my family's basic needs hence getting a decent home seemed achievable. Staying in cracked walls house which was almost collapsing was the only option I had. The remaining transfer I used to buy two sheep, paid school fees for my children who had been sent home and bought food for my family's consumption since we did not have enough in the house.