Having no land to farm forced us to always buy maize which is the staple food in our community. Sometimes it can be very costly especially during famine seasons where 2kg of maize flour can go for as high as ksh100($1) and in a family where that amount can only enough for one day, life can be tough. Months ago, that was my life having to struggle to raise enough money to buy maize and other foodstuffs daily, but now, I have maize that I harvested from the farm that I leased using the transfers. Having maize has reduced my daily budget a lot and taken away the worries of going hungry because whenever I have no money at all, I can sell some of the stock to raise money for the other necessities.

I have always wanted to buy livestock such as sheep but failed because most of my transfers have always been spent on other urgent stuff such as foodstuff and school requirements. Before this project ends, I want to ensure that I buy at least two sheep which I know will be possible now that I do not have to buy maize after having a good harvest last farming season.

We only have a small piece of land where we have constructed our house. This means that whenever we want to farm, we have to lease land which has always been a challenge due to low income. Being unable to farm had always made it tough for my family to survive because we were always buying maize even when others got good harvests from their farms and would go for even a year without spending on maize. During this past farming season, I decided to invest my transfers on farming by leasing a piece of land, hiring oxen driven ploughs to till the farm and finally purchased hybrid maize seeds. The return I got was unimaginable as it was better than what I had anticipated. In the past four months, I have had a better life because I have maize and has never had to worry about what my children will eat.

Now that I have maize from the harvests made last season, I am able to save some of the transfers which I will then use to buy the sheep that have been my dream for some time now. I hope to have a long term investment of the transfers that will grow into something bigger after the project and having the sheep will be the way to do so.

I have managed to clear all the school fees required from my two children in primary school and they are now free and comfortable staying in school as they are not worried about being sent away. My lifestyle has also improved as I no longer use a kerosene lamp but a solar lighting system which I recently purchased.

I recently bought a solar lighting system on credit because I was not able to raise the full amount owing to my low income. I also had plans of using my monthly transfers to clear the payment which I will stick to. I will use the transfers received in the next four months to clear the payment on the solar light before I can focus on other plans I have of purchasing a goat.

I recently bought a solar lighting system which has relieved me from buying kerosene on a daily basis hence reduced my daily expenditure. The solar light is also very bright and makes it easy for my children to read and do their homework at night and produces no harmful smoke as the kerosene lantern that I used before.

I hope that I will have completed the payment on the solar lighting system in the next six months so that I can be able to buy other household items such as utensils before the project comes to an end.

My life is currently different from how it was four months ago because l have my own utensils l do not need to borrow from neighbors. I am eating well balance diet as compared to before when l would eat one type of food.

My new goal is to buy solar lump, since l am tired of buying parrafin being that it is very expensive.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that, before when l had visitors l would run to my neighbors and borrow utensils for them to get something that they can it in, but now l have my own utensils l do not need to borrow. I also manage to start rearing sheep that l did not know that l would ever have in my life.

In the next six months l would have bought solar lump and l will not be spending a lot of money buying parrafin.

The biggest difference in my life since I started receiving this transfer is that I no longer go borrowing utensils from my neighbours as I used to before. Anytime I had visitors in my house, I would go borrow utensils because I did not have good ones. The ones I had were old and some broken. This caused a lot of disrespect between me and my neighbours because they would mock me several times. My first two transfers, I used to buy new utensils so that I don't go begging as before. I am very happy because I have my own and the shame I used to go through, is no more because of Give Directly.

In the next six months, I am planning to sell my only sheep to raise money to buy a cow. I have always desired to have my own cow because I know it will give birth, I can sell the milk to raise a little income and even sell thge offsprings to raise money for other financial needs. I know with this, I will be able to sovlve most of my finacial problems without borrowing.

School fees have been the biggest burden in my marriage life. I do not have a stable source of income just like my husband. The little income we get from our farm by selling our produce has never been sufficient for our daily needs. So many times we had to take part of our harvest to school because we were not able to raise money to pay school fees. This is the reason my children do not even have good school uniforms. With the transfers, I have been able to reduce the balance in school and I know by the end of this year, I will have cleared the whole balance. Since I started receiving the transfers, I have been feeling more independent than before. I do not go borrowing every time I have a problem and I don't get support on everything from my husband. Since I did not have any source of income, I literally had to depend on my husband which is not the case now. I can plan and budget well with my money. This is a great improvement in my life.

Since I used part of my transfer to pay deposit for a new solar system, in the next four months, I will finally have the solar system because I would have finished payment. This will help reduce my daily expenditure especially on buying kerosene daily.