My mind is currently focused on supporting my son to clear his wife’s dowry payments. Hearing my inlaws threatening to take their daughter back really broke my heart since my family has grown fond of her over the past couple of years. I would not wish to see her return to her maternal home unless it is just for a normal visit. I pray to raise some funds and support my son in settling the remaining $400. After that, I intend to work on securing more goats to expand my herd. 

Give Directly works best at giving unconditional cash to people from poor communities. Personally, the money alleviated hardships that I never thought were impossible to overcome. My family never suffered hunger for the remaining part of the year. Even though I do not see any area of improvement for the organization, I wish they would have extended transfers a little longer.  

Before the cash transfers, my family would constantly suffer from hunger because the hustle of making and selling charcoal, which I depended on, could hardly put meals on the table daily. Sometimes, my two daughters, who both worked as housemaids would send me some money to buy food for my three grandchildren and me. This would serve us a few days before we returned to sleeping hungry. This is why my priority was buying foodstuff when I received the transfer. I opted to buy a 90-kg bag of maize, which provided daily meals for at least a month. Next, I spent $160 and $70 on a cow and two goats respectively. Although the prolonged drought has persistently dried up the vegetation in my area, I pray that this livestock survives until they reproduce and grow the herd. Owning the animals is the surest way I could support my needs in the future as I could easily sell them to raise cash. Also, I used $100 to help my son pay for his wife’s dowry. Since they married two years ago, my family has had difficulties in settling the dowry payments, something that has been intriguing our inlaws to take their daughter back. Though it is not fully settled, am happy that the threats stopped after I paid the money. Finally, after my household ran out of the bag of maize, I spent the remaining transfer to continue restocking food. To be honest, my household never missed meals for the entire year. 

It was around 7 pm, I had just arrived home from the daily work of charcoal burning. I was about to prepare dinner for my family of 5 members when I received two consecutive message alerts on my phone. I had planned to go to our nearby shop to purchase foodstuffs for dinner. Upon checking the messages I realized that I had received the transfer that GiveDirectly promised during the enrollment stages. I felt extremely happy about receiving the transfer since I could fulfill most of my life's desires.

Living in a better shelter after completing the construction of our new house is the biggest difference in my daily life. Previously, we were spending sleepless nights because of the poor state of our leaking structure. Additionally, I enjoy spending my nights on proper modern bedding something that makes me feel more refreshed and ready for work every morning.

For over two years, I have desired to start an alternative source of livelihood to upkeep my family since the charcoal vending that I had depended on was unsustainable. After receiving the transfer, I spent KES 27,500 to start cattle rearing by purchasing 2 cows. I intend to sell the offspring when they reproduce whenever I encounter any financial emergency. Additionally, I used KES 11,700 to purchase proper modern bedding for myself. I was using old rugs that always left me with a lot of body pain that lowered my productivity at work. Lastly, I had desired to complete the construction of our new structure which I started but not finalized due to lack of enough money. I spent the remaining amount to purchase building materials and paid labour charges. Nowadays, I am happy and grateful after accomplishing most of my desires with the help of the transfer.