I have a new goal that I never thought of before receiving transfers from GiveDirectly. Having bought a dairy cow and built a house and with my wife almost completing her course in hair dressing, I am now planning to go back to school too. I had had to drop out of it just when I started so as to pave way for my wife to complete her course. I believe this course will be very helpful to us as a family since it will make us more independent financially going into the future. Right now, I depend largely on painting to earn a living and this job provides me with just enough to sustain the needs of my family. I plan to do this in the next four months since my wife shall have completed her course.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does very well by enrolling everyone indiscriminately and by giving the support in form of cash. Looking at the things that people within the village have done gives me so much joy and happiness at a personal level. From purchasing of livestock, to school fee payment and improvement of houses. To me the support has reflected immensely in people's lives. On the other hand, I do not find anything that I think GiveDirectly could have done better.

when we received the second transfer, we used $360 to purchase a dairy cow and used another $150 to complete the construction of our house. We also used a small portion to help us put our land under agriculture and a smaller portion to buy food for the family. Growing up, my mother would encourage us to buy at least one dairy cow and take care of it so that it would take care of our families. She reminded us that we needed to buy our own and stop relying on hers. I had never really gotten enough money that would allow me do to this until recently when I received a transfer from GiveDirectly. I am so happy that I now own one and that this will be a constant reminder of the support that I received from GiveDirectly. I am a father of two young children and this is investment shall also help me in future in meeting the needs of my family including fee payment and other needs as it may arise. I will no longer rely entirely on my painting job to make ends meet for us as a family. It will also make it quite easy for me to pay school no fees for my wife who is almost done with a course in hairdressing.

I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. It was around 7:10 am and we were having tea with family when I heard my phone ring. GiveDirectly had finally made good their promise of sending us money. Minutes later, my mother came to our home asking me to check if she had received hers too. I informed her upon checking that she too had received hers. All of us were so happy and we couldn't help but be grateful to GiveDirectly. Never before had I received such huge amounts of money in my life. I knew a lot of things were going to be in order with the money that I received and I am so grateful that it did.

The biggest difference is that I now have a dairy cow and I have been able to take my wife back to school having dropped out due to lack of school fees. Our lives will no longer be the same and the future of our two children is now more promising. I have plans of going back to school too to finish up on a course that could see me be employed. I am looking forward to accomplishing this.

I used the money to buy a dairy cow worth KES 36000 and used KES 8000 for farming. The remaining amount was used to pay for a salon course in which my wife had dropped midway due to lack of finances. We had always desired to have our own dairy cow and bring to an end the huge cost that came with buying milk. My mother too had been pushing us to put in more effort and be able to buy a dairy cow but the amount of income that I got from my odd casual jobs would just be enough to meet our daily needs and I could hardly save up on anything. I am happy that we were finally able to buy this dairy cow and our two children will no longer have to lack this otherwise precious commodity.