I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the financial support that has changed our lives in my village. Being that we mainly depend on subsistence farming which has failed due to drought, it would have been difficult for us to meet our basic needs such as food. Through their transfers, we can now afford to buy food for our families and pay fees for our children in school.

I have been relying on subsistence farming for many years since it was the only thing that could ensure food security in my household. When the harvest was good, I no longer spent money on food, I could spend it on other important needs like school fees for my children. However, I have not been able to do farming for almost a year due to drought. The little money I get from burning and selling charcoal is not enough to fulfil all the household needs. My children were sent home because I could not pay their fees on time. Since I did not want them to be discontinued because of fees, I spent a portion of the recent transfers to pay for their fees. I am happy that they were allowed to continue with their studies. I also bought enough food using the remaining transfer. I could now afford to take three meals a day unlike before when we could stay for some days without food.

I was already at my work place filling charcoal in the sacks to sell. The thought of my children staying at home for another week as their colleagues continued with their education gave me sleepless nights. The motivation I had that morning was to sell the charcoal, get the money, and pay for them to go back to school. It is at that moment that moment that I received the next in my phone that I had received a transfer. I was speechless for a short period as I could not believe as I did not expect it. I quickly left what I was doing, and I hurriedly went to withdraw the money and headed straight to school to make the fee payment.

I am happy that the money made a big difference in my life and that of my children. They are passionate and I felt bad when I could not get them the money they needed to go back to school. Other children were laughing at them and this, at some point, demoralized their passion for school. I am the funds plaid a big part in mending up the situation and they are now back in school.

I have done different jobs so that I can be able to make ends meet. I have sold coconuts in the marketplace. Currently, the business is down because there are not enough coconut because of the drought. I also burn woods to make charcoal and later sell them. The major challenge with the charcoal business is that it takes long for one to have the sacks of charcoal and the sack goes for only KSH 300. The money is too little to plan around to pay school fees, buying food and paying school fees. I have four children in primary school and I the school owes me KSH 4800 as school fees. With the little I make, I sometimes failed to pay on time and my children were sent home. After talking to the head teacher, I paid KSH 600 so that they would go back and continue with their education. I later spent the remaining KSH 600 to buy 5 packets of maize flour to feed us for the next few days before I could earn money to buy more maize flour.