Before I was enrolled to the GiveDirectly program, I had one cow only. When I received this financial help, I acquired two heifers, a pair of oxen and goats. I am now doing my farming with my own pair of oxen. I no longer hire the services of ploughing from neighbours like I used to do. Also, its now possible to fully cultivate my whole acreage to better harvest. I am expecting the goats and heifers and goats to multiply and have a herd. These are assets that I can readily depend on in case of a financial problem.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly has done extremely well in enrolling the needy households, for the purpose of eradicating poverty on our area. I do not see anything that GiveDirectly doesn't do well.

My second transfer has enabled me to buy two heifers and a pair of oxen at KES 50000. I resolved to buy these livestock because with the heifers, I will rear them and I am expecting that as they reproduce and multiply, then I will have a herd. I know that in case of any financial challenge, then selling the offspring will sort me out. The pair of oxen will greatly aid me in doing my farming. I used to hire from neighbours during the planting season. Since I now have my own pair,I will no longer be incurring any costs, instead I will hire them at a fee. I spent the remaining portion to do some household shopping on foodstuffs for my family and paying for some other household expenses.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I managed to buy a battery for my solar. I had been charging people's phone to earn a living but for over a year, this became a standstill because the battery was not in good condition. Now that I had bought a new one for my solar panel, I can earn a few coins from charging other peoples phones. My home is also well lit compared to the past year.

The moment I received the transfer, I felt very happy. My phone had gone off. When my husband turned it on after some time, a message came through at around 6 am. He was the one who broke the good news to me. I remember we celebrated with joy and could not make any sound decision at that moment. It was later after we had digested the good news that we started to think about how best to use the money. It was such a happy moment that I will never forget.

I spent part of my first transfer on purchasing two bulls that I plan to use on ploughing my land. I am also thinking of hiring them and ploughing other people's land so as to earn some money. Part of the money was spent on buying a new battery for my solar panel which has not been working for over a year now. I also bought a large quantity of water in our nearby town called Bamba. Lack of money made me walk for a long distance in search of water. This was always tiresome and I could only manage to fetch two jerrycans after wasting a whole day going to and from the water point. I am glad that I can use my time well to do other household chores. I finally used the remaining amount to buy food that would last us for a while.