As I continue to receive these transfers, I hope to keep paying my college school fees till I finish my studies. Afterward, I would like to start my own salon and also buy some livestock to rear at home.

I am the lastborn in a family of nine siblings and I just cleared my secondary education last year December. My school was far away from home and thus together with my three classmates, we had to rent a house to live in. The rent was $20 thus we each contributed $5 to settle the bill. With the transfers that I have been receiving, I have been using $25 to pay for my school fees so that I remain in school uninterrupted and continue with my studies. With the most recent transfer that I received in January, I paid a registration fee of $20 to enroll in a hairdressing college that I intend to begin in the second week of February. I also bought some uniforms at a cost of $14 to wear to school. I am grateful that this organization has helped me clear my school bills.

In my own opinion, what GiveDirectly is doing well is giving out cash transfers to the less privileged in society. This has brought change into the whole community as many are using these funds to buy food, pay school fees, and start businesses while others have used their money to start house construction which in turn improved family health greatly hence reducing the level of conflicts in the society. In addition, I also loved the fact that the transfers are unconditional, meaning everyone is given a chance to buy whatever they wish unlike other projects from organizations that only give food for support.

I am the third born in a family of 4 children and am currently in form 4 studying at Mnazimwenga secondary school. I stay with my mother who relies only on casual jobs with very low pay while my father raises livestock to feed the family. I was so elated to be enrolled in GiveDirectly program as it marked a new dawn in brightening my future. Paying my fees remained the greatest challenge to my parents due to too many family demands. I owe the school $ 117 as fees arrears, therefore,  reducing my fees arrears was my number one first priority item. I paid $ 20 as my fee, and paying the fees helped reduced the amount from $ 117 to $ 87. This has made me stressed-free from being sent back home for fees hence increased in my concentration while in class.  The remaining $10 I paid my rent in school. I am to sit my final exams this December, hence renting a house next to school will facilitate easy movement which helps save on time that I would be using to move from home to the school. I am so grateful for the GiveDirectly support. 

I was instantly overwhelmed with so much excitement the minute I realized the arrival of the money, and this is because it finally meant that I could chip in with the needs at home because my parents was struggling financially to even put a meal on the table.

In this particular situation nutrition was definitely the most important thing that I'm grateful for because I was struggling to even have a meal and yet I couldn't ask my parents as well because they didn't have money on them either.

Hunger is one of our biggest challenges in the house so when I realized that the money had arrived I decided to use KES 400 and purchase two packets of maize flour. I also went ahead and paid KES 350 as part of my rent money. Apart from that I also saved KES 300 in case I needed the money later on, and lastly used KES 100 to buy a pair of shoes and KES 50 bought laundry detergent .