Send cash to moms & babies in Kenya
Your donation goes directly to pregnant women in Kenya
The infant mortality rate in rural Kenya is nearly 6x that of the United States. We can change that by giving mothers and their babies what they need most: cash.
This September, GiveDirectly is launching a maternal and child health pilot, in partnership with Lwala Community Alliance, a Kenyan-founded and led health organization.
The program aims to deliver unconditional cash to 1,500 expectant mothers, alongside community-based care, to reduce the economic barriers that prevent pregnant women from having a healthy pregnancy and birth.
Help us reach more mothers like Kadzo, 29, a new mother of 1.5-year-old twins:
“Raising my twins has been challenging,” she said. “Sometimes we have been forced to miss essential meals and medication. The lack of money forced me to take on odd jobs sooner than expected. Six months after giving birth, I was already making charcoal to earn extra cash.
After receiving cash from GiveDirectly, I was able to buy food for my family and clothes for the kids, and currently, I am constructing a decent house to provide a safer shelter for my children.”
Pregnant women and mothers often spend their cash on:
- 🚙 Transportation to clinics and hospitals
- 💊 Prenatal visits and medicine
- 💧 Nutritious food and clean water
- 🔨 Avoiding hard labor in late-pregnancy
… and whatever else they need to care for themselves or their babies. Like all our programs, the cash is unconditional, giving families the dignity and autonomy to decide what’s best for them.
New research shows that cash can cut infant mortality in half
Between 2014 and 2017, GiveDirectly sent $1,000 one-time transfers to 10,500 households in rural Kenya. The results showed that cash cut infant mortality by 48% and transformed the lives of mothers.
With cash, mothers were able to access care and make healthier choices for themselves and their babies, improving not just survival rates, but overall health:
We’re partnering with a local health organization to provide community-driven care
This program is locally driven, shaped and guided alongside the community it serves.
🤝 We are partnering with Lwala Community Alliance, a Kenyan-led health organization with over a decade of experience in community health work.
🏥 Pregnant women will receive cash alongside care from trusted community health workers at local, high-quality facilities.
We’re also conducting research on what types of payments to moms and babies are most beneficial, comparing a lump sum model and a monthly payment model with each expectant mother receiving $860. Your donation will help us provide cash to pregnant women who need it most, while generating valuable evidence to inform future programs and scale lifesaving interventions.
We’re assembling a small group of major donors interested in piloting, improving, and then scaling this approach to reach hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers. If you’re interested in being part of it, email us at info@givedirectly.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the program
What communities does the program serve?
This program will provide direct cash transfers to pregnant mothers in Kenya. To ensure the safety and well-being of the families involved in the pilot, specific county and village information will not be shared at this time.
What is Lwala Community Alliance?
Founded by a group of committed Kenyans, Lwala Community Alliance unlocks the potential of communities to advance their own comprehensive well-being.
We train community health workers to bring services closer to their communities, we strengthen community-led accountability, and we improve the quality of care at health facilities. Our work rebuilds community trust in health services, ensuring that people have the confidence to seek care.
Using evidence and advocacy, we partner with governments to strengthen the health system and translate local solutions into policies that improve health for all Kenyans. We believe that when communities lead, change is lasting.
What is Lwala’s “health systems” approach?
Having more money in your pocket reduces barriers to accessing health care. But that money is more powerful when health systems are strong.
Cash can’t buy you monthly visits from community health workers or health facilities with trained staff that are fully stocked with commodities. It also can’t rebuild a community’s trust that high-quality services will be available when they need them. That’s why Lwala works to strengthen the health system in Kenya by partnering with government, advocating for policy change, and activating communities to lead improvements in services.
If you have access to a community health worker and a facility that provides high-quality care, then your cash becomes more powerful.
What role will Lwala play in this program?
In the research showing how cash can reduce infant mortality, impacts were strongest where basic health services existed, showing that cash + clinics can be a powerful combo.
Lwala will deliver essential community-based health services alongside the cash transfers. Their proven, community-led health model ensures that pregnant women not only receive financial support but also ongoing care from trained community health workers, access to local health facilities, and the information and tools needed for a healthy pregnancy and delivery.
This partnership brings together the power of cash and quality care to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes.
How will pregnant women receive the cash?
Like most of our programs in Africa, recipients in this program will receive their payments via mobile money, which allows funds to be sent digitally to someone’s SIM card.
How was the transfer size selected for this pilot?
The transfer amount was based on essential pregnancy and postnatal expenses, identified through consultation with maternal health experts at Lwala, local market prices, WHO care recommendations, and GiveDirectly basic income benchmarks in Kenya. It aims to cover costs like transportation, supplies often out of stock at public facilities, and other out-of-pocket expenses.
Why is the program focused on pregnant women?
A study of GiveDirectly’s cash transfer program in Kenya found that a one-time cash transfer of $1,000 reduced infant mortality by 48%, a result comparable to widely used public health interventions like malaria vaccination. While that program wasn’t designed specifically to improve maternal or infant health, the impact on pregnant women and their babies was remarkable.
Mothers who received the transfer worked 51% fewer hours in their third trimester and were 53% more likely to deliver in a hospital, both key factors in improving birth outcomes.
Given these extraordinary benefits, we are now focusing intentionally on pregnant women to build on this success. By directing resources toward mothers during a critical period, we aim to further reduce risks and improve long-term health and well-being for both women and their children.
How will you study the program’s impact?
To understand how the program affects families, GiveDirectly will hold focus group discussions at the beginning and end of the project. These conversations will explore how cash transfers influence health choices, support maternal well-being, shape household spending, and are perceived by recipients in terms of value and delivery experience.
What if we raise more or less than the fundraising goal?
Any excess funds raised will help us deliver cash in another upcoming pilot program for mothers and babies in the DRC.
If we raise less than the fundraising goal, GiveDirectly will allocate internal funds to make up the gap between our fundraising and the total needed to ensure every family receives funds.
No matter what, your donations will end up in the hands of families in extreme poverty.
General questions
What is GiveDirectly?
We’re a nonprofit that lets you send money directly to the world’s poorest, no strings attached. In the last decade, we’ve delivered cash to over 1.6 million people across 15 countries and research the impacts it can have for families in need.
What if I’d like to make a major gift?
We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us at info@givedirectly.org.
Is my donation tax-deductible?
Yes, donations are tax-deductible in the United States. We accept all major credit and debit cards, PayPal, checks, wires, stocks, cryptocurrencies, and more.
If you’re giving outside the U.S., you can still give to this campaign but your gift may not be tax-deductible.
Reach out to us at info@givedirectly.org with any questions or for more information on ways to give.