I am jobless and depend on my husband for all the basic needs of the family. Due to the high cost of living, the earnings from his casual jobs are not enough to fully support our essential needs. My desire has been to start a grocery business in the village to supplement his earnings, such that I could support the small needs of our family. Additionally, this will give me the self-reliance which I had wanted to achieve.

In my opinion, giving out cash transfers to the poor households in our village is what Givedirectly did well. Additionally, sending the cash directly to eligible households through mobile money was a good decision they made. Through the transfer, the lives of many needy people in our community were transformed for the better. I just wish it to expand its operations to reach other households living in poverty.

Providing quality education for my kids has always been my desire in life. The transfers come at a time when all my children are at home due to huge fee arrears. I spent $55 of the transfers to support the education of my 3 children who are both in secondary and in primary by clearing all the pending fees. At the moment, I am happy that they are not missing classes unlike before. In addition, I used $200 to renovate our house which was about to collapse since most of the building poles and mud that was used to construct it had fallen down making it unstable. I used the transfers to purchase building stones and cement to replace the mud walls with stone and cement ones. Furthermore, I boosted goat farming by purchasing 3 more goats for $87. This is a future investment for the children, I will sell the when they reproduce to support their education in the future. Lastly, I bought enough food and new clothes for the family members with the remaining amount.

It was around 5 pm when I was at my house relaxing while eating food. I heard my phone ringing and I decide to complete what I was doing before I could check my phone. I was extremely happy and it call for a celebration with my family members when I saw the Mpesa message indicating that I had received my transfer. This is because I was pretty sure that I will be able to solve most of my long-term desires.

Sleeping on proper beddings with my family is the biggest difference in my life. Previously, I spent my night on the floor and always felt back pain. Currently, I am happy that I am enjoying my nights on proper beddings courtesy of GiveDirectly transfers.

In my entire life, I have not been able to sleep on proper beddings because I could not acquire them because of poverty. Sleeping on the floor was what I was used to. I was always feeling back pain and my body was infested by maggots that were affecting my skin. After receiving my transfer, I spent KES 13500 to purchase proper beddings for my family to save myself from that miserable life. I also renovated my house which was collapsing on one side by putting up strong pillars so that it may be stable and semi-permanent. Moreover, I purchased 2 goats for KES 7,250 as a future investment for the family which will help us whenever we encounter any challenge. I also bought sufficient food using the remaining amount of my transfer.