I have had the intention of building a better house for me and my family for the longest time now but unfortunately I have always fell short when it comes to the financial bit. The house I live in at the moment I had lived in it for over a decade now and it is a mud house and the roof is made from dried palm tree leaves popularly known as Makuti. I intend to build a house made from brick and then also replace the roofing with iron sheets instead because Makuti is pricy since it always needs renovation in case it rains to much or gets damaged by wasps. That is why after I got enrolled I made a decision to start saving my money with each transfer so that I could finally be financial capable to build my dream. Even with the funds I received I took the KES 3,000 and put it away in my savings account until the day I feel that I have enough more to begin the construction.

The house I have been living in for the longest time crumbled down last year. I am currently living in a relative’s house. I won't use the money from the transfer to build a new house for myself. I have been saving all the transfers that I have received so far. I deposited the money in a Chama savings account. I am expecting that after a short period of six months I will be able to acquire a loan and start the process of building a bigger and stronger house using the concrete bricks. I am optimistic that I will soon have a house of my own.

In my opinion GiveDirectly is doing a great job because earlier I had no money to even sustain my family at times since my husband passed away sometime back and I became the bread winner and without no permanent job this has been quite difficult. I used to practise subsistence farming but the lack of rain made me quit so I am very thankful for the funds I receive.

Ever since getting enrolled with this program my first project that I wanted to venture into was the renovation of m y house especially the roof since it was grass thatched and most of the timber had been eaten away by termites so I wanted to change it and put iron sheets instead. So like the first transfers I took KES 3,000 and put it all away in my savings account because having cash at hand would tempt me into using it and I really needed the money to accumulate instead.

I was so happy because before receiving a notification that the money had arrived I thought that night we were probably going to go to bed hungry because our pockets were empty and it did not look like we were going to get any money that day, so it was a very pleasant surprise.

I live with my sons since my husband left and one of them unfortunately broke his leg so he barely moves, meanwhile drives a motorcycle as taxi but since he does not own it he has to work in shifts with some of his friends so at times he comes back home with something and sometime he does not. Therefore the money enabled me to also lend a hand with the house responsibilities and not always rely on the children since there is another source of income.

After finding out the transfers had been sent, nourishment was such an ordeal in the past few seasons so I purchased maize flour at KES 1000 which was ten packets which would sustain me for a while. Then the remainder of the money which was KES 200 I decided to save because my house is grass thatched and it is almost collapsing so I am saving the money so that I can afford to renovate it in the near future before it completely falls off.