"I do not have a source of income to depend on and at my age, I cannot engage in casual jobs since I am old and weak. My son whom I depend on does casual jobs which do not pay much, and most of the time I am left to fend for myself. My wife is also suffering from mental illness and I need to take care of her, and I can only fulfil this through the transfers. I am planning to spend the transfers mainly on buying food and nursing my sick wife, and in case of surplus, I will purchase some goats to keep in my homestead."

"Currently the challenges we are facing are lack of food and proper housing. We are 5 in this family and it's a struggle having to rely on casual labour to feed ourselves. Of course, we do small scale subsistence farming but due to erratic rains in our area we end up harvesting next to nothing. This brings about hunger crisis in our family. On top of that, we have burnt bricks just behind this house, however we are unable to start a new house building project, that's comfy and better accomodating than this one, due to financial constraints."

"At present we are relying on finding casual labour such as farming in people's farms and get paid to buy food. When those don't come by then it gets hard for us to feed our family. On a good day we make about $5 which is far from sufficient to carter for our HH needs especially in terms of food for the 4 of us. Additionally, this house here gives us restlessness especially when it rains for it leaks. These are our only challenges that make our lives harder currently."

"The only challenge I am facing in my household is hunger. Last year I only managed to harvest a single bag of maize from my 3 acres farm. Apart from not applying fertilizer, erratic rains contributed to this low yield. This has brought about a hunger crisis for me and with my weakened strength it's hard for me to conduct pieceworks where I'd be paid and buy food on a daily basis."

"Currently the only challenge I have is lack of food. As of today I only have a single bucket of maize floor for food in my house which I hope will sustain me until next week then I have no idea where next to go and look for food. Of course my spouse, Mkondeni from Lunzu where he's doing pieceworks, sends help but it's intermittent and not sufficient to support me and my HH here."

"Currently the only challenges we are facing are poor housing conditions and hunger. We wish we lived in an iron sheets roofed house but we fail to do that due to lack of financial muscle. Additionally, at present we have zero food stock levels and this brings in a hunger crisis where we only manage to eat once a day, thus, after we find pieceworks and get paid to buy food. These are the hurdles that we are facing in this household."

"GiveDirectly did an outstanding job in our village and continues to do so in the other villages where they are currently enrolling. I am grateful for the significant change that occurred in my household as a result of the transfer. The officers who came to see us were eager to assist and were always willing to explain and clarify the process. I have no complaints, but I am grateful for the support and hope to see similar support in other villages."

"I have been reliant on livestock farming and casual labor, where I work on people's farms and look after their livestock for a small daily wage. It was a relief to receive the first transfer, as well as the second, because I had a lot to do. After spending the first transfer on the priority projects I had, I spent the second transfer on the construction of a new, larger house to supplement the small hut that we had. Living in a single house with a family of seven was extremely difficult, and we had to constantly send our older children out to the neighborhood to look for a place to sleep. The problem was solved after we spent $140 on 20 iron sheets, $100 on poles, and $60 on labor to complete the new construction that gave an extra room for my children to sleep. I also spent $140 on two sacks of maize that we used as food in our household, $30 on new clothes for my children, and the remainder on school fees for the five children who are currently in school. I am thankful for the support and relieved that I was able to clear all of my arrears and keep my children from being sent home."

"What I hope to accomplish in life in the next few years is to see all of my children acquiring quality education in order to become future leaders and also to help the family when we are no more capable of doing so."