Since the beginning of this year, I have received 6000 KES from Give Directly. My priorities are normally food and clearing unsettled fee balances at my child’s school. So I used KES 2,600 to buy food and KES 1000 to pay for my son's school fees. From the remaining amount, I saved KES 2000 through a self-help group with expectations to withdraw the accumulated amount at the end of the year.

I paid for my child's primary school fee of 1300 KES so that she could go back to school. She had stayed home for two days before the money was sent. Prior to that, she had been sent back home severally but I kept requesting the teachers to let her stay at school as I raised her fees. At that point, I was already stuck and did not know what to do because the teachers could not take my excuses anymore. Am glad Give Directly came right on time, and she managed to get back to school. KES 3400 I spent on both food stuffs and detergents that we did not have in our household. While KES 1500 I saved in a savings and loaning group. In three months' time, I am planning to borrow some loans from the group to start up a second-hand cloth business. This will be a great source of income which I believe will improve our lives. I still stay with my parents who do odd jobs which are not reliable and pay about KES 100 daily whenever they are lucky to get one. The load is too much on them and I can not wait to support them when my business picks.

This program is very helpful because even without this money my child would have probably have sent back home due to the arrears that I had yet to pay and I honestly have no idea what I would have fed my children especially with this ongoing famine so I am most definitely thankful and elated.

I actually had a debt in tuittion fee at my daughters school but since I had spoken to her teachers to give me sometime she stayed and continued with her studies so when I received the money I immediately went ahead and settled the debt by paying KES 1,000. Also with the drought that has really affected us negatively especially in our farms, I decided to buy a bag of maize which contained twelve packets at KES 1,200, two kilograms of beans worth KES 240, two kilograms of sugar worth KES 230 and sardines at KES 100. Then the last thing I bought was laundry detergent worth KES 100.

Well i was from fetching water down the stream at around 10 am in the morning. When i got home i heard my phone ringing. I went ahead and looked into it. I found out that i had received money from Give Directly. I was very happy and filled with joy. I immediately told my mum thhe good news and we smilled together.

The biggest difference to date is about my children and their education. Previously my childdren would be sent home and would spend 2 to 3 days home before goiung back to school. Currently their education has not been intereupted in any way and so i really happy for that.

I used the cash to pay school fees for my children since they had already been sent home dye to lack of school fees. The rest of the money i bought fooid for my family.