In the next one year and beyond, my desire is to gather enough money and pay school fees for my children. Getting enough money from the casual work that my husband does and from the subsistence farming would not allow me raise enough money to pay school fees for my two children who are already in their secondary level. Right now I have two children who are already home because we have not been able to raise enough money to pay their school fees in full.

In my opinion GiveDirectly does very well by giving support in form of cash. This gives everyone an opportunity to make decisions based on their needs. I do not see anything whatsoever with GiveDirectly that I think should be changed within GiveDirectly and how they conduct their operations.

I used $200 to pay school fees for my two children. I have two children in secondary school who had huge school fees arears at the time that I received the transfers. I am a mother of six who relies on subsistence farming to make ends meet while my husband does tea picking to support the family. The little amount of income that we make from these jobs was just enough to enable us make ends meet. We had used the first transfer to buy building materials and the amount that remained from the second transfer was used to put up a new building. We are so grateful that we now have a new building that we would not have had it not been for GiveDirectly transfers.

It was around 6.30 pm while on my way to the posho mill when I heard an SMS alert on my phone. On checking, I confirmed to have received KES55,000 from GiveDirectly. I was very happy and bought beef on my way back home. That night we celebrated GiveDirectly transfers by eating a special diet of Ugali and beef the most prestigious meal that we couldn't otherwise afford.

The purchase of building materials is a dream come true because soon I will build a modern and spacious Iron roofed house. I had desired to build my house for the past 13 years but couldn't afford it. I am also grateful because since I received GiveDirectly transfers my kids are well dressed and well-fed from GiveDirectly transfers.

Before GiveDirectly, our budget was KES 200 a day, KES 60 on a liter a day and KES 90 on a maize meal, and KES 50 on sugar. Most of the time we could sleep hungry because I could get only a KES 100 from casual labor and sometimes nothing at all. I am a mother of six and I rely upon casual labor for food. My husband also works in a tea estate as a casual worker and normally pays school fees from his job. Recently, when I received my transfers I was very happy. I, therefore, spent KES 18000 on twenty-four ironsheets, KES10,000 on tree frames, and KES 1,740 on four kilos of nails in preparation for building a modern and spacious Iron roofed house. This is because currently, I live in a tiny grass-thatched house that cannot accommodate all my 6 kids, 5 boys, and a girl. My boys usually sleep in their uncle's house and my daughter in her grandma's house. Furthermore, I used KES 10,000 on the latest clothing fashion to replace the unkempt second-hand clothes that we had been used to due to our meager earnings from casual labor. Consequently, I spent KES 10,000 on payment of my daughter's school fees arrears. This is because she had arrears from the second and third terms and GiveDirectly transfers just came on time. Lastly, KES 5000 was used on a bag of maize, beans, sugar, and other household items. The remaining KES 6,000 I have saved for house construction.