"Lack of clean water for home use and livestock is the greatest challenge. With my old age, I rely on my children to purchase and grandchildren to fetch water for me. When they are not around, I struggle a lot and sometimes goats die for lack of water and pasture. The lack of rains has largely contributed to this and we have no better options."

"The scarcity of water is the most challenging for me . The rains have not been consistent for the past three years and as a result, the rivers have dried up completely. We walk long distances to get water for home use and even livestock. Sometimes we are forced to buy water at $ 0.60 per twenty-liter which is quite expensive. If we had water availability things could be better as we would be having enough food."

"I suffer the problem 0f water which enters my house when it rains. It affects the whole house, we even lack where to sleep when this happens. I find hardships to meet medical bills when I and my people fall sick hence living in pain simply because we are encounting a lot of poverty."

"The most noticeable difference in my daily life is the significant boost from the purchase of construction materials that have nearly completed work. I am glad that I was able to accomplish so much on the construction site thanks to GiveDirectly's financial assistance. I am eager to see it finished in the coming weeks so I can get out of the kitchen, which has been filled with fumes from the cooking area."

"My family of three lives in a single house that serves as both a kitchen and a living room. Despite the fact that it is large enough, the fumes from the cooking area and the soot from the smoke landing on our clothes have been a nuisance. I currently own a grocery store where I sell vegetables and fruits, and I have always saved a portion of my earnings in an informal savings group that we started in the village. Every month, I save at least $7, which I intend to use to purchase construction materials for a new kitchen in the coming year."

"We are constantly affected by severe droughts, which can last for more than five months without rain. Life has been difficult during this time because fetching water alone takes a significant portion of the day, and livestock may succumb to the harsh conditions due to a lack of feed and water. The county government initiated a water piping system, but few people could afford the cost of connecting it to their homes because of the high prices of the required appliances and installation. We were relieved to receive GiveDirectly assistance because we had prioritized spending $150 on buying pipes, paying labor charges, and installing the conveyance to the doorstep. Over the December holidays, our sons undergo the communal initiation ceremony, and mine was one of them this time. To complete the process, I paid $100 that I had saved up for one month's worth of lessons, food, and clothing. In addition, I gave my wife $50 to spend on groceries for our family of four. I had been relying on casual labor and had hoped to start my own business. As a result, I saved the remaining funds to be combined with the subsequent transfer and used to start an egg collection business. I have been scouting the market, and with the low prices in the village, I can always sell them for a good profit."

"The challenge I'm faced with at the moment is the lack of finances. Inflation has become great and the little amount we get from work is not enough to gather for our needs. We have four children who are in secondary school and college and it has been a great challenge for us to pay for their tuition. We are also building a iron sheet house for our family and it stalled because of lack of funds. This has forced us to stay in our small house with our children and sometimes I feel it's too small. I wish I had money to complete the house."

"The greatest challenge I have is not being able to reach the hospital easily, we don't have access to roads and the hospital is located very far from where I live and it becomes difficult for me as I am getting older , i have little energy left to walk that whole distance. I am not even capable of working to get money to use and the small land I have doesn't produce enough for me to eat and my grandson, I have to ask some support from my children. I live with my grandson who also have eye sickness as me and it is not easy for us to go to the hospital to get treatment."

"The first challenge we are facing in our life is not having our own land to cultivate , for us to survive we have to rent other people's land to be able to produce what to eat.Another challenge we are currently facing is having a small house which doesn't have a kitchen which requires us to cook inside the same house in which we live in. My husband Hangimana lost his mom 5 years ago and his father left them with his siblings without anything, they suffered alot living alone and after a while one got married and other two went to live with their relatives, my husband stayed alone fighting for his life and trying to survive day by day until we met 2 years ago and got married recently his father didn't want us to live in the house where he left them , he chased him out and my husband had to build ourselves a house to live in, up to now we have to work hard in other to get what to eat and build ourselves a sustainable life."

"Our life depend on farming but this area is surended mainly by hills and rocks in many places which make it hard terracing our land and when we are in sunny season we don't get as much production as needed because we don't even have access to water and we don't have access to enough fertiliser to use in our land either Organic and inorganic. Another challenge we are currently facing is lacking access to roads, when we need to go to the hospital we travel a long distance by passing trough small areas that are not even adequate and it is hard for our children to go to school as well because the shools are located far from where we live."