Despite the difficult burden of paying the school fees for my two children, I have faith that I will soon open a small business that will provide a steady source of income for my family. I am interested in venturing into maize buying and selling maize because it has a high demand in the neighborhood. This will substitute what my husband makes from burning and selling charcoal.

GiveDirectly's help was genuine and the enrollment process was fair to the point that nobody needed to pay anything to the staff to be selected. I believe this is the best program ever that fulfilled our expectations after spending on the plans we had.

Earlier on after receiving our first transfer, we bought a water tank. It needed a safe place to be installed thus with the second transfer we bought gutters and cement that we could use to build a strong foundation where it would sit. The total cost of purchasing the needed materials plus paying the plumber was $300. From the remaining amount, I deposited $200 into my children’s school fees account, since they had arrears. For the rest $30 I bought foodstuff to feed my family for a while.

It was around 7 am, I was busy doing my charcoal burning job at in the forest. I heard a message ringtone on my phone an indication that I had received a new message.Being illiterate, I did bother checking my phone, I decided to complete my job before I could go home for my helper to check the message and probably inform of its contents. I was very excited after reaching home and was informed that I had received the transfer that I had patiently waited from GiveDirectly from the day I was enrolled in the program. I immediately notified every member of my family and we jointly thanked God for the opportunity.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I am optimistic that I will be able to have enough clean water for my family use after purchasing a water tank and once I complete the installation of gutters around my house. I will no longer have to walk for a long distance to get this precious commodity in my life. Furthermore, I will be able to sell some water to my neighbours to earn a living.

I spent KES 10,000 to support my daughter's educational needs by clearing the term on fee arrears. She is in secondary school and she had a huge fees balance since it has been long since I paid her fees. I also used KES 32,000 to purchase a 5000liters water tank for storing enough water for my household consumption. I will use it to harvest enough clean rainwater since our area is prone to drought conditions and during such time it is almost impossible to get fresh water for our use. In addition, I am planning to sell some to my neighbours to earn a living. I am planning to use the remaining amount to purchase cement and installation of the rain gutters around my house.