We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time.
Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
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2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
477520 RWF ($423 USD)
access_time 12 months ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I will improve the wellbeing of my family and graduate from extreme poverty and this will lead us to self-reliance
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
I thank Givedirectly for giving us unconditional cash so that allow us to spend money according to our priorities and things are better
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I spent a lot of money on buying land for cultivating especially for subsistence crops that should help me to feed my family and eradicate hunger in my family. I used it also to improve my house so that will help us to live in a house with a hygiene and sanitation
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
329680 RWF ($298 USD)
access_time 1 year ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was in the morning around 8 am , I was planting beans in a crop land that was near our house.I heard a notification message from my phone that was coming from Givedirectly that I received money . I immediately went to announce it to my husband, we were so happy we celebrated it by dancing. One thing that came in my mind is that we were finally going to be rich.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
Things have totally changed , we were renting a crop land but now we own our crop land . I am able to take care of my family by buying them home nececissities such as food and clothes.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I bought a crop land of 100k the one we had before we were renting it now we are owning it,. I am planning to plant beans and taros in that land.
Enrolled
access_time over 1 year ago
What do you plan to do with the cash transfer?
The first installment we plan to renovate our house and buy some other materials that we need like matress , beds , furniture , clothes , shoes , flask and food to eat. And the balance we plan to buy livestocks, we want to buy 2 goats for $100 that will give us fertiliser to use.
The second installment we plan to buy a land , we want to buy a land for $400 and the balance we plan to start a small business of selling banana juice and vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants which can help us generate some sustainable income.
Receiving this money means coming out of poverty and we will be able to clean ourselves and have proper clothes and our children will be able to have everything they need at school and they will eat well at home. We will have our own land and we will no longer suffer from any hunger and it will allow us to save for our future.
What is the happiest part of your day?
There was a time when we were not able to get food to eat because it was expensive at the market and our children were starving but for the past months we are able to get food to eat daily and our children go to school without starving and they are able to get an education.
We recently received solar panels and now we no longer live in the dark and we don't have to worry about buying batteries to use and our children are able to revise after school because we have electricity.
We are living healthier, we have security and we are happy that our family have not met any challenges in these past months.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
We currently don't have our own land to be able to have what to eat we have to rent from others and to get that money we daily work for other people..this makes us work twice than we should because we work for others to get money for rent and then we come back and work in that rented land which us quite tiresome.
We don't even have our own livestocks, we have to herd from others to be able to get fertiliser to use which is not enough and we can't afford the inorganic fertiliser and this affects our productivity.
Our children currently don't have school uniform and other materials they need because we can't afford it , we worked hard to get them school fees which we pay in installment because we can't get it all at once , and our children studies in fear that they will be chased out of school and this sadness us because there is nothing more that we can do to change that situation.
