GDLive Newsfeed
We check in with people at each stage of the cash transfer process to see how things are going. Take a look at some of their stories as they appear here in real-time. Learn more about how recipients opt in to share their stories.
Stages:
 
Enrollment
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Transfers
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Completed
Newsfeed > Sammy's Profile
Sammy's family
Sammy
landscapeCountry:
kenya
workOccupation:
Other
faceAge:
45
workCampaign
Kenya Large Transfer
There will be no further updates from this completed recipient.
2nd Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($433 USD)
access_time 1 year ago
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How is your life different than it would have been if you never received the transfer?
I do subsistence farming for a living. I am planning to start up a small business supplying maize to boarding schools. I usually do it although to homesteads on order. In the near future, I will be expanding and mostly the deliveries will be done by the motorcyclist as they will be in large quantities. The profits from the business will be taking care of my kids' school fees.
In your opinion, what does GiveDirectly do well, and what does it not do well?
According to my opinion, what Give Directly does so well is that they give out unconditional transfers, different people have different needs, and we have the freedom how to spend the transfers so long as it is something that does not harm us together with community members. The transfers are given in lump sum amounts and this helps in planning purposes in terms of the developments that we would wish to engage in at a personal level. Unlike other projects where it is given in small amounts. To avoid household conflict, what needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration to the programs
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
I am a widowed parent of eight children below the ages of eighteen years old.Before the transfer, I never had a modern house, I owned a small grass-thatched house which was leaking during the rainy season. I thank Give Directly for the transfers as I managed to build a three-bedroom modern house for kshs 50,000. Initially, I never had peace of mind as it was so tiresome moving some of my valuable items during the rainy season, my young boys too never had adequate space to spend their nights and this was so stressful as they could sleep in a neighbour's house. My peace of mind is finally restored since I built a house. Getting a balanced and regular meal had been the most difficult thing for my young family of three. I used the whole balance of kshs 5000 to stock food for an entire month. We are very grateful for the transfers.
 
Initial Payment
Transfer Amount
55000 KES ($473 USD)
access_time almost 2 years ago
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Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
It was past 7 am and I was on my way to do some work for someone of sawing timber when I heard my phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and I checked it to see what it was all about. I could not believe my eyes when I read that I had received KES 55000 that GiveDirectly had promised us before. I was so happy and I thanked God for it. I then proceeded to my workplace and it was later on when I got home that I told my wife the good news. She was so happy too on hearing this since she had been eagerly waiting for me to tell her so since she had heard from others in the neighborhood saying that they had received their transfers.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
The transfer has brought a big difference in our lives as a family. We are glad to have managed to pay school fees for our children. We managed to clear the school fees for the whole academic term for the one who recently joined the secondary school and hence we no longer have to worry about the child being sent home due to arrears. We are also in the process of building the store that we have always yearned to have in a while. We are thus happy and grateful to GiveDirectly for what they have done for us.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
We spent KES 40000 of our recent transfer on paying school fees for our two children, one who is in college and the other who recently joined secondary school. A lot of money was going to be needed especially for the one who recently joined the secondary school and we didn't know where we were going such a huge sum within a short time. I usually do the business of sawing timber since I have a power saw machine to get money for paying school fees for the children and to meet the needs of my family. We are thus grateful to GiveDirectly for supporting us. With the remaining transfer amount, we spent it on buying iron sheets. We want to construct a store for storing animal feeds for our cows, that is, grass. I usually do not have a place to store them and hence I usually just cut them from the farm and give it directly to them to eat. With the store, I will be able to harvest grass and store it so that they can consume it at a later time, especially during the dry season. It has always been our wish to build the store but we were not in a position to do so since we didn't have the money.
 
Enrolled
access_time 2 years ago
 
What does receiving this money mean to you?
Receiving this money will mean a lot to my family since I have 2 children in college and primary respectively, I will be able to pay their school fees of KES 45,000. I am planning to put the remaining money into dairy farming by constructing an animal feed store and adding more feeds to improve the dairy products. This will enable me to earn more money from a dairy farm.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Having good health and peace in the family has brought more joy. It was also exciting to learn about Give directly coming to our village to assist us to elevate poverty.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
The biggest challenge I am currently facing is insufficient money to pay school fees and provide animal feeds since I have a small land to plant and a lack of a store to put the feeds.