Our new goal is to do farming, that is, to till and grow grass for the cows. We plan to grow boma Rhodes and nappier grass. We want to grow the grass because in our area we usually experience a prolonged dry season which makes the maize crops not to do well. The grass will be able to sustain the harsh climate and it will act as feeds for the cows. We also have a plan to start rearing chickens again. We use to rear a few of them before but we had to sell them because there was an outbreak of a poultry disease. The chickens used to help us in getting money that we use in paying school fees for our children in primary school and buying household necessities like sugar, soap, etc. That is hence the reason why we want to go to rearing them.

GiveDirectly did well by offering their support to the people in form of money. This way the people got the chance to choose for themselves how to spend it. Most of them spent on making investments such as buying cows, starting businesses, etc which are going to help them in the future.

We spent the second transfer on completing the payment of a piece of land that we had bought. We spent KES 30000 on clearing the balance. We decided to buy more land so that we could get space for planting the grass for the cows. The size of land that we used to have was small. We also bought a calf at KES 17000. We decided to buy the calf so that we could add it to the cow that we bought with the first transfer. The cows are going to help us in the future when our four children join secondary school. We know that the school fees that is going to be needed then will be a lot. We were not able to buy the piece of land and the calf because we did not have the money. We usually practice small scale farming where we grow crops such as vegetables and sell them. We also at times do casual jobs of farming to get money for buying maize. With the remaining amount of money, we used it in buying food and clothes for the children. We are therefore so much thankful to GiveDirectly for the support.

I was busy farming on my farm when I heard my phone ringing notifying me of an incoming SMS. I decided to check what it was all about and to my surprise, it was an SMS saying that I had received the lump sum transfer of KES 55000 from GiveDirectly just as they had promised. I was filled with so much joy that I couldn't wait to finish whatever I was doing to go inform my wife of the good news. She was so happy too to hear this because we knew that we were now going to be able to achieve what we had planned. I hurriedly prepared myself and I went out to withdraw the amount.

The transfer from GiveDirectly has brought a very big difference in our lives. We have been able to have peace of mind because we were able to achieve what we have always wanted to do, that is to buy a cow that I believe is going to help us soon. We were also able to buy some food that is going to last us for a while with part of the transfer and hence we no longer have to go seeking casual labor a lot. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for making this possible for us.

I spent the better part of my transfer buying a cow. I have always wanted to have one because production of maize over most of the years has gone down. We therefore have lacked enough food to sustain us all through up to the next harvest. We therefore resorted to buying a cow because with the cow, we will be able to get milk that the children can consume and we can sell some and get some source of income. Achieving the above has been quite hard for us because the little money that we get from the small scale farming and casual labor usually goes to the purchase of food and other household items.