I am a charcoal manufacturer and I also sell fish. Collectively, I earn around KES 4,000 although this is not consistent. From it, I get to fend for my two children and wife. To manage meeting most of our needs, I normally ensure I make weekly savings of KES 400 in a merry-go-round. When it is my time to collect the contributions, it also comes with a small interest which helps boost my finances. Currently, we are experiencing some droughts in our area and water has been scarce. My minimum weekly consumption of it is 120 liters, which now sells at KES 400. Unlike before where we would fetch from nearby running streams for free but they have all dried out. So, when I got the money, I used it to buy water and made some savings.

Give directly does very well in supporting the needy and ensuring that they are guaranteed of a monthly pay. This is the best thing that has happened to us in our village. There is nothing that they do not do well.

Before I started receiving funds from give directly, I was unemployed. In order to fend for my family, I would look for casual jobs most of which involved cleaning. This was never profitable for me as the jobs were not consistent. I would make around ksh150 per day worked and providing for my family was a challenge. But when give directly stepped in, my life changed for the best. From my first transfer of ksh1200, I spent ksh600 on food, since there were droughts in my area, I spent ksh400 on water and the remaining amount I added to the ksh100 I had to raise a capital of ksh300 to start a fish vending business. This increased my daily earnings by more than 100%. When I got my second transfer of ksh3000, I distributed it equally to farming, food, and business expansion. I now have a daily earning of around ksh500 and I could say I can now comfortably provide for my family.

I was in the house resting. I had been in the market early that day to go buy Omena. Unfortunately, I was not able to get more stock for the business and I decided to spend the day resting and thinking of the next step. At around 9 am, I received the text message and I was very happy after seeing it.

The money has made a big difference in my life. I was able to expand and buy more stock for my business. I now have a business that I depend on. With few jobs currently, I am looking forward to expanding my business even more so that I can be self-employed and earn a living from it.

With my little business and the growing needs of my family, it is very hard to meet all of them. The drought has made everything expensive. I do all types of jobs at my disposal just for survival. Before receiving the transfer, I decided to start a small business of selling some Omena. The business has been picking up quite well and the challenge was to get money to add more stock to satisfy the ever-growing demand. When I received the transfer I spent KSH 300 in adding more stock for the business. I also used KSH 300 in buying food for the family. The biggest part of my transfer was used to buy water for my family. The hardship I have been experiencing in terms of finding water is big and so this was the reason why I bought water in plenty.