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.
Describe the moment when you received your money. How did you feel?
I was on my way back home from my parental home where I had gone to check my mother who was sick. I remember it around 6 pm, when I received the Mpesa messages on my phone. Being illeterate, I had to reach home for my helper to verify the messages. Upon reaching home, everyone was very happy about the transfer. I was extremely happy when I was informed the I was among the people who received the transfer. I was pretty sure that my kids will continue with the studies.
Describe the biggest difference in your daily life since you started receiving payments from GiveDirectly.
Able to fulfill my dream of providing quality education for my kids is the biggest difference in my daily life. Currently, I am living a happy life seeing my kid continuing with his driving college. I am optimistic that he will be able to secure a good job in the future.
What did you spend your most recent transfer(s) on?
My biggest desire was to provide quality education for my children. My two children had completed secondary school but I lacked the finances to advance their studies. After receiving my transfer, I prioritize taking my firstborn to clear heavy commercial driving school. I spent KES 30,000 to clear the fees needed in full and gave him some for his upkeep. Currently, I am remaining with KES 15,000 which I am planning to start livestock rearing a future investment for my family as well as education for my children.
Enrolled
access_time over 2 years ago
What does receiving this money mean to you?
My last two children finished their secondary education when my husband already economically inactive so they didn't get to go to college. Should I get this money, I would like to afford them that: tertiary education. But again I wouldn't want to do it directly from that money as it won't be sustainable, instead I will first start a business then the profit I get I can spend that way plus buying goats as a store of wealth for any emergency in the future.
What is the happiest part of your day?
Being in a state like mine where you're too old and still has to face physical jobs to feed yourself makes it difficult to even be happy, but I still have few things that bring back joy to my life. At the end of each day, I normally sit with my fellow old ladies and share nostalgic stories, laughing about how fast time flies as we kill the evening after a hard day's job of cutting and ferrying logs and trunks in readiness for charcoal burning. This old routine normally makes us very happy and rejuvenates our energy.
What is the biggest hardship you've faced in your life?
I do not have a source of income and this affect me in such a big way; having to burn and sell charcoal to get money. Imagine at this old age I still have to go into the bushes and cut trunks for burning charcoal. And seemingly it's going to be for the rest of my life as I do not even have working children who can support since our husband is no longer economically active.I lost my first three children and the remaining two are half educated and are just hustlers in town hoping between one construction job to another despite the fact that one of them even has a chest condition that can't allow him to do such physical jobs.
