From the pharmacist and bursar jobs that my wife and I engage in, we save $350 monthly toward the purchase of land. We have since saved $650 out of the $1800 needed for this 1.25 acres of land at Olbutyo. We are hopeful that we will clear these arrears before the year ends and, hence, initiate constructing rental houses and business premises that will earn income for the family of four.

With the current amount offered to households, an immense change can be seen. Houses have been upgraded from grass-thatched to iron-roofed, dairy cows have been bought, and assets have been added at large. Lives have changed, so to say, thanks to GiveDirectly. It is only my appeal that the transfer amount be increased and prolonged to cater to other needs that have not been met.

In the Kalenjin culture, owning a dairy cow is a measure of wealth as the family gets constant milk from it and therefore food security. When I received the transfers, I spent $315 on purchasing a dairy cow so as to alternate milk production with the one that I currently have. Besides the bursar and pharmacist jobs that my wife and I run with passion, my family of four also depends on milk sales to earn income to support food, education, and clothing. To further boost the chemist business we run at Kizito Center, I used $100 of the transfers to add more stock and an additional $60 on school fees for my child in grade 5.

I felt so much happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. I remember very well that I was in my house and it was around 4:00 pm when I heard my phone ring. After checking my phone, I found out that GiveDirectly had made good their promise of sending us cash. I made a call to my wife who was away from home at that time. She was extremely happy and even broke into a celebration mood as we conversed on phone. We had so many things that we wanted to do once we get money and on top of the list is getting money for our business that urgently needed a boost. My wife was running a chemist shop and the demand for medicine was so high that we could not meet with our supply. There was therefore an urgent need to increase our stock to gather for this demand and give us more profits

The biggest difference in my daily life ever since we started receiving these transfers is the peace of mind among my family members. This is largely attributed to the loans that I was able to clear and knowing that no one will bother us hence forth. Looking at how our chemist business has improved is also so satisfying. At least we are able to make more money from the chemist business making our living standards better as a family and we are also looking forward to even making it bigger.

When we received our first transfer, we used $300 to buy a cupboard and another $70 to buy clothes for family and other household needs. We also channelled another $100 towards our chemist business that is run by my wife, $50 to clear debts owed to us and $30 was used to buy food for the family. We received this money after we had completed construction of our house and there was a lot of of things to buy such as furniture. It is for this reason that we decided to buy a cupboard with the first transfer. This was a much needed furniture in our new house to make it more comfortable and beautiful. We also decided to clear the $50 owed to us because it was long over die and the person that lend us the money had kept reminding us to pay the debts. I am so happy that we now have peace of mind having cleared the debts. We are so happy and grateful as well because our business has greatly improved giving us profits of up to $50 per month up from barely $20 per month before GiveDirectly transfers.