Within the next year or so, I would love to make my maize flour selling business bigger and get a physical shop to sell to customers at retail price. This would work towards my long term plan, which is to be able to take care of both my family and my grand kids and financial stability would greatly help me achieve this.

As a person suffering with blood pressure problems and being in and out of employment, the work GiveDirectly does was a blessing. It truly transformed my life and all I could think of in terms of improvement would be for them to extend their programmes longer(more transfers) and potentially increase the recipients, since there is still so much more people would wish to do. GiveDirectly steps in and closes that gap between them and their goals.

My immediate use for the transfers sent by GiveDirectly were first and foremost, buying a hoe and 2 cows. The hoe would assist me greatly in my casual labour endeavours where I looked for farms that need cultivating and charge KES. 2,000 a day for work on an area of an acre. This kind of work has become scarce with the drought and currently my stay at home wife and I are both not working. Part of the remaining funds I used to educate one of my grandsons. I have been blessed with two boys, of whom one has 3 kids in school. Since he was having the largest financial burden educating the lot, I took it upon myself to clear the fees debt of KES. 20,000 that one of them currently had and paying an extra KES. 15, 000 towards the next terms fees, for him as well. The remainder of the money was used to buy maize flour which I get at KES. 2,100 per bale and sell on retail at KES. 140 per pack, and this is yet another business I operate, when the capital is there, and which helps us make ends meet.

I usually wake up early in the morning and prepare my charcoal for sale since this has been my source of livelihood. Before I could start working, I decided to check on my messages and confirm whether I had unread messages. I was greatly overjoyed when I saw one of the messages was a mpesa message. I realised that I had received my transfer from GiveDirectly. I called them through their hotline thanked them for their support.

I have been doing my farming using inferior farming tools like the hoes which were not effective on larger acreage. Because of this, I could manage to only cultivate an acre. Whenever I needed to increase my acreage for maximum harvest I had to hire a pair of oxen from neighbours which was costly. I could not hire a tractor because the oxen were much cheaper and readily available. Through the transfer, I managed to buy my own pair of oxen and an ox-plough which I believe will enable me to maximally utilize my farm. I will not be incurring the cost of hiring again, instead, I will be hiring them to neighbours at a small fee. I am also assured of getting a good harvest which will ensure food security in my household.

I spent the transfer on buying a pair of oxen and an ox-plough at Ksh. 46000. During the planting season, I am planning to use the oxen to boost my harvest. I have been hiring from neighbours during the planting season but it was really costly. Besides ensuring that I utilize my whole farm, I will also be hiring them to neighbours at a fee, thus getting some money. I can use this money to cater for my basic needs like food in the household. I spent the remaining amount on buying foodstuffs which include a bag of maize which could at least feed my family for some weeks.