My accomplishment would be to educate my seven children. My eldest son recently joined college and his siblings are almost completing their high school education, which is my biggest challenge and worry. My husband’s source of income is unreliable and even with the short-term job contracts, he cannot fully meet all the financial obligations of the family. I only hope that he will get a job soon and continue educating my children.

The biggest achievement was having my son join the college of his dreams and this was a burden to me, with my husband’s unemployment situation. GiveDirectly is one organization that is unique in eradicating poverty through provision of lump sum funds. I am confident that in a few years, most of the villagers enrolled in the program will have changed their lifestyles through investments and developing projects.

I have been living in a two-roomed house with my seven children. My husband is a driver by profession but is unemployed at the moment. The biggest challenge is educating my children who are in high school and others who want to join college. The first transfer was used to improvise my house from a two-roomed to a three-roomed house to accommodate my sons, who have grown and need their privacy. I spared a little and paid school fees for the five in primary school and food. The second transfer was in time for my eldest son to join the college of plumbing studies. I used $300 for his full-term fee for all the requirements he needed as a new student and also paid another $60 for his siblings in high school. The other $100 was used to buy a bed and a mattress for myself and the remaining was enough for food for the rest of the members of the family.

I learnt from my son that I had received money from Give Directly. I was at home relaxing in the evening after a hectic day's work when my son came back home and asked me for my phone. He had earlier received Mpesa confirmation message that he had received money from Give Directly and since he knows I do not know how to read, he wanted to help me confirm the same. That was when he informed me that I had received money too. It was such a surprise. I felt so happy and thanked God for the money.

The biggest difference in my daily life since I started receiving is the happiness and hope I have knowing that I will soon have an iron roof house. For the better part of my life, I have been staying in a leaking grass-thatched house. Whenever it rained we had to remain standing the whole night because we all sleep on the ground since we do not have beds. Everyone deserves a peaceful night's rest, but we have been deprived of this for a longer period. I can not wait to finally have a taste of how it feels to stay in a house that does not have a leaking roof.

I spent KES 40000 of my first transfer on timber, iron sheets, and nails which I am planning to use to extend my house. The current house is a double room grass-thatched that has a leaking roof. We usually do not sleep whenever it rains because the house gets flooded. Since we sleep on the ground, we are usually forced to remain standing for a better part of the night whenever it rained. I, therefore, want to change the roof to iron sheets. this will not only save us the agony of sleepless nights whenever it rained, but we shall also have our privacy since we will not have to share a sleeping room with our children. KES 4000 I spent on a mattress for my children. Finally, they no longer spread rags on the floor as their bedding. I still have KES 5000 which I will use to purchase our bed and used KES 6000 to purchase foodstuffs for my family.