I previously had a business where I sold livestock in the market. I used to make good money from the business and through that I supported my family with no challenges. When the drought started, it killed most of my livestock and a mysterious disease wiped the little that survived. Since then I have been jobless and the reality that I had lost my source of income made me sick and I had to seek for medical attention. My wife burned charcoal for sale to support our family. It is a struggle for her to support the family all by herself. It is for this reason that when I received my transfer; I spent the whole in buying maize for food. I did that so that we could have plenty of food that would last us several weeks and during that period, together with my wife, we would plan accordingly on how best to use the money she earns from selling charcoal. This will ensure that our family does not lack and sleep on empty stomachs.

I spent my most recent transfer on buy a 90kg bag of maize at KES 3,600. Since the transfer was not sufficient, I topped up with KES 600. The 90kg bag of maize served my family comforatably for a whole month. Therefore, I did not go hungry even for a single day. I am grateful to GiveDirectky for its kind support.

GiveDirectly has honestly helped elevate me financially since my job as I had mentioned was subsistence farming but with the famine we were almost starving on a daily basis but through the funds and GiveDirectly I have managed to look after my family and this makes me very happy because I can put a meal on the table.

I happen to be a subsistence farmer since I do not have any job but this throughout all the years has always made me feel content because I can provide for the nutrition of the family to say the least but that has been a big predicament for me this year because it has not rained for the longest time and so the crops died. That is why when I received the money I went ahead and bought two bags of maize flour which contained a dozen packets each for KES 2,400 in total since each bag wa KES 1,200. Then the remaining KES 600 I went ahead to buy seven kilograms of beans.

The moment I received the money I was filled with so much joy because the hunger that I was experiencing for those couple of days before the money came in was beyond me. I even thought to myself that my family and I would most definitely perish if the situation did not change anytime soon and then mysteriously it was like GiveDirectly heard my prayers I got money and at least we did not have to suffer and starve anymore.

Before getting the money sometimes I would just go to the farm and pick any plants that were edible because with the on going drought there is barely anything in the farm and we even have to share what we find with the livestock sometimes because they too are hungry. So after picking the plants,I would take them home boil or try and cook them then eat with my family. But after indulging with this program we at least get eat and not go to bed hungry and wake up to the same situation everyday.

When I received the money, initially I wanted to start a business of rearing poultry for sell which would manage to sustain me and my family but after trying to do so I found out that they sold one chicken for KES 1000 which was too expensive to me considering I only had KES 3000. So I changed my mind and decided to buy two sacks of maize flour which contained twelve bags that sold for KES 2400 in total. I made this choice because after all my family and I needed to eat because we did not get the opportunity to plant anything this year. The remainder of the money I bought five kilograms of beans and a quarter a kilogram sugar.