"The whole family was home when we heard the SMS ring alert. My husband and I can not read so it was up to our son to read the text for us. We were so happy after he let us know GD had sent the transfer just like they had promised. The first thing that came to mind was buying a plot of land, paying for my child's school fees and buying a solar lighting system for my house."

"It is safe to say that I am now presentable and I feel like I am rejuvenating since I received my first transfer. I bought a good soap and some good body lotion to take care of myself, my husband and child now have good clothes and shoes and I am able to think of ways I will be expanding the farming idea that I started, thing I could not do before receiving LS1."

"I had a house whose roof was very old and I was not safe from the rain anywhere in my house whenever it rained. When I received the first tranfer, I reconstructed the roof and it cost me 120 $, I bought a pig worth 60 $, clothes worth 40 $, a mattress for 40 $ and utensils for 50 $. My house's roof was my biggest concern and thanks to GD, I was able to have a proper roof."

"My family of 7 depends on charcoal burning to earn a living. However, the harsh climatic conditions and prolonged drought have depleted the trees and now we have turned to the bodaboda business that my husband owns as an alternative. Furthermore, charcoal burning is tiresome and risky as well because the government banned it and if found practising, then will be prosecuted. I am glad the transfers made life easy because I have paid school fees with them. In addition, I used $30 to purchase food for the household and the rest of the transfers on house construction. I am excited that my financial burden has been reduced hence I can concentrate on safe income-generating activities."

"I have been doing casual jobs to earn a living. However, wages from it are often insufficient to meet the educational and nutritional needs of my family which are always on the rise. With the regular GiveDirectly transfers, I hope in the next year I shall have acquired additional livestock. Primarily, I aim to accomplish my goal of boosting my livestock-keeping venture. As I continue to receive my transfer, I shall particularly be buying more goats. These will be beneficial to my family at large."

"I hope to accomplish my goal of acquiring a parcel of land in the next year and beyond. There is a parcel of land that I had identified, and the seller had agreed to sell it out to us at $100. So far, I have not made any payment though I am working on how to raise some money to commit. That parcel will assist me in locating a suitable location for subsistence cultivation. It will aid in obtaining other sources of income. The acquisition of that amount is my key goal this year as I continue to get transfers. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the financial support."

"In the next year, I hope to accomplish the goal of increasing the size of my livestock farm. My main goal has been to buy more goats and raise them. They are valuable live assets that will bring supplementary income to my household in the long run if they survive. As a result, I will find it so easy to pay for my children's secondary school tuition. My spouse and I will find life to be pretty easy in terms of raising additional money for food and other family development plans."

"I was previously reliant on casual labor, which could be difficult to come by as a source of income. Since my husband got fractured on the rips, I have had to shoulder the entire burden of raising school fees and purchasing food for my family of six. My children had been sent home from school because of a lack of tuition fees when I received the first transfer. I owed $20 for four primary school children, and my son, who was in secondary school, had given up and decided to enroll in a middle-level technical learning institute where he hopes to train as a driver. Clearing the $20 arrears and taking back the four children to school was a relief, I also paid $10 registration fees for the elder son at the technical institute where he is scheduled to begin in May. My ultimate goal was to purchase a cow, and I had to spend $210 on a heifer. I intend to breed and then sell the offspring to help pay for my children's school fees in the future. In addition, I had a shopping list of $165 worth of items to purchase, including bedding, clothes for my children, and an extra seat. I also purchased a $65 sack of maize, which we are still using today. Because we were expecting rain, I also purchased farm inputs worth $15 and saved the remainder to use in my daily purchase of a liter of milk from the neighborhood."

"I am filled with contentment and satisfaction for all that I have achieved thus far. However, due to the lack of funds, it has become increasingly challenging to make plans for the upcoming year. Despite these challenges, I am forever grateful for the funds that transformed my living standards. The impact of those funds was immense, and it has enabled me to achieve so much."

"Going by the current weather condition highly characterized by drought, I have been unable to do any farming. I heavily rely on my monthly transfers to support my school-going children. I hope to launch a company providing ready food inside the center with the assurance of monthly transfers. Although it does not fetch much, I am sure it can raise at least $ 2 a day. That can go a long way in supporting my children to get food. I have to work extremely hard to support them because I am a single mother. My husband divorced me ten years ago, and the burden of catering to my three children's needs is solely on my shoulder."