I am planning to focus on tomato farming once the rainy season is over. After harvest, from the returns, I intend to purchase an additional dairy cow to increase milk production hence increased income.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well in impacting the lives of the less fortunate by making the money easily accessible via mobile money. For instance, through the transfers, I bought a dairy cow and therefore no longer buy milk.

When I received the transfers, my major challenge was buying a liter of milk each day. This is because as a single mum of three I normally rely on casual labor for food. I, therefore, spent KES 32,000 on a dairy cow which has reduced milk expenses. Before, I used to buy half a liter each day for KES 25 after getting KES 200 from casual labor. At times we used to take black tea when there was no casual labor. Additionally, I spent KES 7,200 on two bags of maize of which the remainder can sustain us for the next month. This is because my children are still young therefore do not eat much. Similarly, I spent KES 3, 500 on durable cooking pots and household utensils. This is because I only had a few. I also bought KES 3000 on 10 chicken layers This will help in supplementing household expenses. In addition, I also invested KES 1,300 in merry-go-round monthly contributions. I also bought the latest clothing fashion for KES 8,000 because earlier we could only afford second-hand clothes. Lastly, I bought a 210 liters water container at KES 1,500. This has helped in the storage of rainwater and therefore I seldom go to the river.

While looking after my cattle at 9 a.m, I heard my phone beep. I was met with a lovely surprise when I checked my phone and saw that I had received KES 55,000. I was so excited to finally start the construction of my new house.

I still get overwhelmed with joy when I look at my new, modern two-bedroom house. Before receiving this cash transfer, we lived in sad conditions. Our small, grass-thatched house could barely accommodate all four of us. It also had a leaky roof, and we had to endure getting rained on during the cold weather. Even though this made me sad, I am unemployed and could not afford to improve our living conditions. So you can imagine how blessed I felt to receive this donation. I have built a spacious house for my family and could not be more grateful.

It has been a dream of mine to build a decent home for my family of four so we could move out of the tiny grass-thatched house we lived in. So I was excited to receive this cash transfer. I spent KES 54,700 on construction materials such as timber, bricks, cement, and labour costs.