"It was unbelievable at first when I heard what GiveDirectly was proposing. An organisation offering to assist and asking for nothing in return was truly an unheard concept to me. GiveDirectly changes lives in ways many of the recipients would never have imagined and for that both myself and other beneficiaries will eternally be grateful."

"I would love to put the knowledge that was imparted to me at Makina Technical and start and electrical shop. Wiring things for clients and making basic electrical repairs on appliances would put me on the path to more finances and thus change our life for the better."

"Food insecurity is a major challenge that we are facing at the moment. We are peasant subsistence farmers but maize farming has not been doing well. we were hopeful of a good harvest but there was a prolonged dry season that affected our maize crops, they are in a poor state and we are not expecting a good harvest this season. The burden of purchasing the commodity from the market has and remains to be an uphill task. A 2kg of maize retails at $1.80 up from $0.70 which is hard to afford. We are people of little means who depend on casual jobs to fend for our families. The sad reality is that the cost of living has gone up and so the meager income we get is hardly enough to cater for our needs."

"My health has failed me for some time now. I suffer from high blood pressure and I am under medication. I normally go to be attended at Tenwek Hospital. The cost of treatment is expensive and sometimes I am unable to raise the required amount and which means I am forced to skip the medicine which subsequently affects me since without the drugs I feel sick and indisposed. High blood pressure puts one to be under drugs throughout and so to sustain the cost without a cover is a tall order."

"In October, my husband passed on after a long illness of 6 years. He had battled a kidney failure disease and he had been undergoing dialysis in a Kisii hospital. The dialysis was very expensive costing $100 per week and he was undergoing it twice a month. We depleted a lot of resources to cater to his medication, 2 of my children who were in college were forced to drop out of school because of a lack of school fees. My husband suffered a lot, I watched him gradually get wasted by the disease, he underwent pain and suffering and, on his sunset days, he could not even move. We used to assist him to even eat. I am still mourning my husband, I have not gotten over it, sometimes I stare at his photo and wish I could bring him back to life. Death is so cruel!"

"Among many challenges affording school fees for my 5 children and two grandchildren. It's challenging because I depend on substance and causal work. They are all enrolled but lower grade."

"Floods run through. Homes here"

"I received the second transfer just at the right time . I'm a house wife without a stable source of income. It was in the evening and I had gone to the shopping center to buy a few things like soap , I heard my phone ringing and when I checked , I found that it was money from Give Directly . The first thing that came to my mind was the 2 acre piece of land that my husband and I are paying for in instalments , so I used $100 to pay for the instalment. I wish to clear this payment and own my piece of land because my husband's ancestral land has a lot of disputes regarding it's ownership. I now have a balance of $1000 that I hope to clear soon . I had always wanted to start a retail shop business whose profits would help me to sort out financial emergencies during difficult economic times like this . I'm grateful that I started my shop business using $200 from this transfer . I sell things like maize flour , soap cooking oil and body oils . I spent $600 on two goats that I hope to rear , have them reproduce and later on I'll sell them and buy cattle . Since we had always desired to wear new clothes , I bought my children , husband and myself new clothes that did cost $60 . I wish you could see the look on our faces the day we wore them ! Previously I didn't have a kitchen , I used to cook from outside , so I built myself a simple kitchen using $30 since I already had iron sheets. I also ensured that I cleared my child's day care fees which was $60 and spent $20 on food ."

"Am always worried about water that comes from up uphill, the water can be very fast and destroys our crops. We are always living in fear especially when it's the rainy season around August September even in March. The desire to move away from these areas forced me Andy wife to to go to Kenya and start working there so that we can be able to get money to enable us to move to other safer areas."

"Poverty is the major challange which has led to hunger because of lack of food, lack of school fees, heavy rains that has caused flash floods which has destroyed gardens hence shortage of food."