Our old age can no longer allow us to work casually to earn a living. This exposes us to poverty and the inability to put food on the table. I plan to invest in the keeping and rearing of livestock. This an easy way of earning a living as well as growing wealth in our area.

I am happy that GiveDirectly's cash program has allowed us to own assets and even invest. Apart from eradicating poverty in society, many people were able to purchase assets with their transfer. I am happy that my dream of having a cow and producing milk has come to pass. With the high cost of living combined with a high poverty rate in our area. This transfer came at the right time and helped us a lot but only scratched the surface of poverty in our homes. I wish that GiveDirectly will remember us with another project near future.

I was struggling with the high cost of living at the same time I had to buy expensive milk for my family. Milk price was exorbitant now that it was scarce. A liter would retail at KES 50 and my family would require up to 2 liters of milk a day. The only way out was to produce milk for domestic use. I budgeted KES 40000 for my transfer and bought a lactating cow. I am now proud that we are no longer incurring this cost.

It was 7 am and I was busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast for my family when suddenly I heard my phone ringing hence notifying me of a new message. I called unto my helper who is my son to come to check for me what the SMS was all about since I do not know how to read. He came took my phone and after a few seconds, he happily told me that I had received the promised transfer of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly. I was so happy on hearing the piece of good news and I celebrated by giving lots of thanks to God and GiveDirectly for the blessing.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. This is because I managed to achieve my goal of building another house for them. I also managed to buy another cow. The cow is yet to calve but when it does, I will be able to get more milk for sale. This thus will result in more income.

I spent approximately KES 28000 of my recent transfer on building another house. I decided to build another house because the one that I use to live in had grown old. Apart from that, I also bought another cow with the remaining transfer amount of KES 27000. I decided to do so so that my milk production could increase. I have grown old and I am no longer able to do heavy work to earn a living. I hence usually depend on the money that I make from the sale of some of my milk to earn a living. Sometimes, I depend on my children who have jobs to provide for me. It has always been my wish to build another house and to buy another cow but due to financial constraints, I have not been in a position to. I am hence grateful to GiveDirectly for their big support.