My business of selling local brew is currently down compared to a time like this last year. The drought has made the coconuts trees be unproductive, and the harvest is dwindling every day. It is for this reason that I decide to spend KSH 600 from the transfer to buy two chickens. This a start of me venturing into the poultry rearing and selling business which will earn me extra income. Besides buying the chicken, I spent KSH 700 to clear school debt for my two children for them to sit for their end of term exam. Because of the poor business, I have not been earning much and we have hard to survive on one meal a day or even sleep on hungry stomachs together with my family members. After thinking hard, I decide to buy food with the remaining amount of money. I bought food bulk so that my family would starve due to lack of food.

I spent KES 1000 of the transfer on paying school fees for my four children currently in primary school. I cleared the arrears so that they would be allowed to continue with their studies for a whole term. At least I have enough time to prepare for the next payment. I also spent KES 600 on buying two chickens which I am rearing. My expectation is that they will reproduce, and sell the offsprings to settle my financial needs such as the fees for my children. I spent the remaining amount on buying cereals like maize and ensured I have enough food for my family.

The way Give Directly handles and cares about us recipients is very amazing. The in-house visits to every household is what amazes me.

I used KES 1600 of the transfer to buy food, KES 1,000 to pay school fees for my children, and KES 400 to buy 2 chicken.

I was extremely happy because for two days I had not even had a meal. The meals that I kept providing went to take care of the kids instead, because it was not enough to feed the whole family. I had to sacrifice for my children because I cannot let them go to bed on an empty stomach and the following day go to school. So upon receiving the message I was clearly excited because I would eat and so would my kids.

Feeding my family is one of the most important things I benefit from the program because I am a palm wine tapper by profession and it barely lets me earn enough especially with this drought which makes things even harder to manage and so with the money I receive it assists my family and I from escaping starvation.

After receiving the money I already had an idea of what I was going to purchase, which was to care for the nutrition of family, because were a family of ten and that includes my wife and I and the recent weather conditions have not been favourable at all. In short our area is experiencing severe drought thus we cannot plow the land and even if we do the crops end up dying. So I bought ten packets of maize each was two kilograms and this cost me KES 1000 and for the remainder of the money which was KES 200 I bought beans and tomatoes which would accompany the meal that would be made from the flour.