I have made a major step in life that I would not have had I not received the transfer and this has completely changed my life First, I was able to start a small business of buying and selling tea leaves and acquired a motorcycle. The motorcycle has really helped me move around easily and due to this, I am able to deliver all my order in time. In addition, I was able to buy a dairy cow and start a poultry keeping project that my spouse now runs. With all these developments, I am assured that I will be able to pay school fees for my children with ease and also meet our daily needs on time.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well by changing people's lives through cash transfers and I do not see anything that they do not do well.

When I received my transfers, I decided to buy a second hand motorcycle worth KES 45,000. To will enable me to ease my movement around while going on with my daily activities. I operate a small business whereby I buy tea leaves from the factory on retail and supply them to different shops in the county. I was able to start this business using the amount that remained after acquiring the motorcycle. Because of this, I no longer walk around the neighborhood searching for some work to do.

I was driving my cows to go drink water at the river when I heard my phone ringing notifying me of an incoming message. I stopped to check the content and to my surprise, it was an M-Pesa message saying that we had received the promised amount from GiveDirectly. I was so happy having read the SMS and I could not wait to get home to let my wife know of the good news. I therefore hurriedly drove the cows to the river and back home. My wife was so happy to learn the good news and we said a lot of thanks to God and GiveDirectly because they had opened a way for us.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family because it has enabled us to achieve our dream. We have been able to start the project of rearing chickens, goats, and sheep that I believe will help us now and in the future. The chickens will enable us to get eggs that we can sell and use the money to cater to household needs such as buying food and other small household items such as sugar, soap, etc. The goats and the sheep that I will buy with the money that is remaining will be of great help to us especially in the future. This is because they will reproduce and multiply in number. I can hence sell some of the offsprings and use the money on other important things such as paying school fees. I have also been able to pay my son’s school fees with the transfer and I will not be having any stress about where I am going to get the money to do so. My child who is about to complete his primary education will also be able to study well without his studies being interrupted by school fees arrears. I sometimes go to look for casual jobs so that I can get money to buy food for my family. The two bags of maize that I bought will from hence enable us to have something to eat for a while. I will hence no longer be having worries about what my family is to eat and I can concentrate on my farm work.

The transfer from GiveDirectly has been of big help to us. I used it in building a house for the chickens and another one for the goats and the sheep. I also used part of the transfer to pay for my son’s school fees who is in his final year of primary school education. I was also able to buy two bags of maize for our consumption and twenty chickens that I plan to rear. I still have some amount with me that I plan to use on buying the goats once their market prices come down a little bit. We had planned before that when we receive the transfers, we will use it on starting the project of rearing chicken, goats, and sheep. This way, we will be able to have something that will generate more income for our household now and in the future. We were not able to start this project before due to a lack of money. We mainly depend on farming to earn a living. We usually grow a few crops such as cabbages, beans that we sell. The money that we have been getting from the sale of these farm produce has mostly been going to the payment of school fees for our children. We, therefore, thank GiveDirectly because, with this lump sum transfer, we were able to achieve our goals.