I am planning to purchase additional cows and goats. This will help in generating more income for school fees payment in the next year.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does well to give each household in our village money. This is because now there's a change in our village because all school children paid fees, houses are well built.There is more no hunger.

A few years ago I had five cattle three dairy cows and two bulls. But due to school fees needs all of them were sold for school fees. As a result, we have been buying a liter of milk each day for the past five years. So, when GiveDirectly transfers came buying a dairy cow was my priority. I, therefore, spent KES 25,000 on a Friesian heifer. This will be an addition to the dairy cow I bought using the first transfers and it will be an alternative source of milk during dry spells. Secondly, I also bought three goats at KES 15,000 because they reproduce twice a year and can be sold during financial emergencies. Thirdly, I spent KES 3,200 on hot pots, household utensils, and KES 3,500 on clothing. Lastly, I spent KES 2, 000 on additional maize stock for my posho mill. From the daily returns, I can save KES 1000 weekly in merry-go-round groups.

It was at midnight and my husband and I were not yet asleep since we were eagerly waiting for the good news from GiveDirectly. We had heard some people earlier on in the evening saying that they had already received their transfers. So that is why we kept on having hopes that we were also going to receive the same. As we were lying there on the bed with a little bit of sleep trying to snatch away our attention, my phone suddenly rang hence jolting us from the little sleep. We immediately took the phone and we checked what the SMS could all be about. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw that the new SMS was what we had been anxiously waiting for. We were so happy on seeing this and we thanked God and GiveDirectly for the blessing. We slept that day with smiles on our faces since we now knew that the plans that we had made, were now going to be truly fulfilled.

The transfer brought a very big difference in my life and that of my family. We bought a cow that we had always desired to have but due to financial constraints, we were not able to. We hence no longer incur the cost of buying milk like before. Apart from having milk for our consumption, we are also supplying a litre of it to a neighbor who pays at the end of the month. As a result, we have hence been able to earn some income out of it too.

We spent most of the transfer money on buying a cow. We bought it at KES 40000. Buying the cow was our biggest priority upon receiving the transfers since we didn't have one. So due to that, we usually incur the cost of purchasing milk on a daily basis. We usually buy a litre at KES 50 and this amount of milk is only enough to prepare tea for the whole family of six. We used to have some cows but we had to sell them to get money for paying school fees for our three children who were then in secondary school. They have since completed their studies but we still have one who is still in secondary school. As a result, we are not yet off the hook when it comes to school fee payment which has always been our biggest challenge. I have a business of selling water and the money that I make from it is what I use in paying school fees for the child. We have hence not been able to purchase another cow since we didn't have the money. So when GiveDirectly came in with the program, we saw an opportunity to achieve our dream. We now hence no longer incur the cost of buying milk like before. Other than buying the cow, we also bought a goat at KES 4000, paid remedial classes fee for the child, and my husband used part of it to buy a mobile phone for himself. With the remaining amount of money, we used it in buying food and clothes for ourselves. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for the support.