Before we would travel for long distances to fetch water for use especially during dry Season when a nearby stream dry up. This would mean that we would waste a lot of time to and from main river. After we got the transfers and spend part of it on buying water pipes and connect it to our doorstep. We safe a lot the energy and time which we would have spend collecting water from the river.

Give Directly changed the livelihood of people through the nonrefundable transfers. Everyone spent the money based on their needs which was a good idea. To me there was nothing negative which I noted about Give Directly.

The second transfer I spend Kes 10000 on buying water pipes for water connection. I also spend Kes 20000 to construct a house for my son. The remaining amount I spend Kes15000 on school fees and Kes 8000 on food.

I have always wanted my children to study up to university level since I was not able to go even up to high school level. I have always seen education as an investment and it always saddens me when my children are sent back home from school to collect school fees. Since I was able to offset their arrears using my transfers, I have been able to pay their first terms school fees using the money I got from my daily hustles. This has always made me so happy and for the first time in my life, my children will attend school for three consecutive months without being sent back home. Without GiveDirectly, I would not be so happy as I am now and this is so far the biggest difference in my daily life.

It was around 8 o'clock in the morning as I was going on with my daily activities when I received a message confirming that I had received some money from GiveDirectly. At that instant, I became so happy and I whispered a word of prayer to thank God for leading GiveDirectly to our village. For the first time in my life, I gained a lot of energy on that day which made me do a lot of work which I usually do in two days.

Rains have been very inadequate in our region and this has led to so many rivers drying up. This has always made my wife and children travel for a long distance looking for water. When GiveDirectly came for enrolment in our village, we decided that each household that will benefit from the transfers should contribute at least some amount to use in connecting piped water to our village. When I received my transfers, I spent part of it as a contribution towards this project. Buying milk has been my daily routine and this is costly. I spent part of my transfers to buy a calf. I believe that two years after now, I will not be buying milk anymore as my cow will have reproduced. I also used some amount to pay school fees for my children in order to clear arrears I had and avoid being carried forward to this year. Studying in the evening had been very hard for my children since the kerosine lamp we were using used to produce a lot of smoke which irritates eyes. This prompted me to buy a solar panel so that my children will be comfortable doing their revision and it will help them not to develop eye problems.