"The moment when I received the transfer I felt so happy. Since I operate motorcycle taxi services I normally leave the house very early. By the time I received the message I was already out working. I could not contain the excitement though from outside people could believe that I was acting normally."

"The money was sent very early in the morning while I was in the process of cleaning the house. When I saw the message I felt so happy, kept the phone away so that no one could get a glimpse ofit. I ensured I stayed with the phone for two days as I was budgeting and later withdrew it."

"With the transfers from GiveDirectly, we managed to buy livestock and build a good house. Now we have two cows courtesy of GiveDirectly. We have a house made of ironed roof and timber wall. On my own I couldn't afford to build one and instead we would still be living in a one room house."

"I can still remember very well it was around 12 noon when I was taking lunch with my family, then my phone started ringing continuously. Without wasting time, I asked one of my children to confirm what the notification was all about. Upon checking, he realized that it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I had finally received my first transfer that I had anxiously been waiting for."

"I was awakened by the loud vibration at exactly 3 AM. I was a bit surprised and anxious at the same time. Therefore without wasting time, I decided to check the content of the notification. Only to realize it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirctly, I was over excited and I could not afford to sleep till dawn."

"Satisfying the basic needs has been my biggest challenge all along. This is because the little income that I get from farming and casual jobs is not enough to save for other projects. Most of the time,I use all the money to buy food. This explains the condition of my house. I have been trying to save money for constructing a better one without success. Farming is not reliable in this semi arid region while casual jobs pay little(as low as 5 USD) and are rarely found."

"Financial instability has been the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life. This is because I work as a casual laborer in a small eatery kiosk in our nearby town and my role is fetching water. This job earns me $2 per day that usually goes to food and I hardly save for the future of my children. I am so grateful now after knowing that, soon I will have a stable source of income."

"Receiving this money means good education for my family. I was blessed with 2 children. My firstborn completed his secondary education last year and passed well but he could not proceed to college due to financial instability. I am intending to spend 90,000 shillings to pay for all his college fees for 2 years, so that he can pursue a primary teaching course because this has been his ambition. I hope he will secure a job and support us in the future. Other than that, I am going to spend the remaining transfer to clear all fees arrears for the second born who is in his fourth year in secondary school."

"Before, I use to struggle to provide for my family. I would live by my daily wage but now I am glad that I got a good harvest from a piece of land which I had leased and planted some food crops. Again, I got some livestock which I usually look after them after days work on my farm. GiveDirectly changed my life as I no longer struggle with my daily needs."

"I am glad that my compound look so different in that I have new shelter and livestock. With GiveDirectly's transfers, I managed to build a new house, buy a water tank and buy some livestock. I couldn't managed to do all this before as I would struggle with buying foodstuffs for my family. Since then, I haven't been going to the river as I got water tank which stores enough water for use at home."