"Lack of finances is the main challenge bedeviling my family. I offer daycare services for employed parents who bring their children to me during the day. I charge $ 1 per child per day and on a good day, I get not more than 5 children in a day. I have a daughter who is at Kabianga University and I have to send her $2.5 every day for upkeep. The remaining money is spent on buying food for the other 4 members of the family. Many times I find myself in a situation where I do not have enough money to buy all the foodstuffs. I also have an epileptic daughter who requires $7 every week for medication to keep her condition at bay. I feel like I am overwhelmed and I cannot take it any longer."

"I am currently struggling to find money to afford household needs. We work hard in the fields but often don't harvest enough. Our house is not big enough for all of us, we'd appreciate a bigger house but the money to do that with. This year has really been hard because we don't have food and are currently on a hand to mouth basis. We run a grocery store out front but business is slow because people don't have money."

"At the moment, I am struggling to provide food in my household and supporting my children's education. We are hardworking but often times fail to buy fertiliser and that leads us to yield nothing. I receive coupons but they deliver late in the villages when the maize is past the critical stage. We fail to go and buy in balaka town because we don't have the money. That's why we don't harvest well since the fertilizer is applied later then needed and the the weather plays a part as well. Low yields means low income since we rely on farming and can't sell to attend to our other needs like school for the children and all."

"In the next one year, I hope to accumulate enough money to pay school fees for my child who is joining junior secondary through the latest education system that was just implemented. The education system seems to be quite expensive compared to the old system and it is fir this reason that we are brazing ourselves for this. With the first transfer, I was able to buy a dairy cow that is almost calving and this will go a long way in helping me and my family meet such needs."

"When I received the second transfer, I used $250 to buy a heifer. I used another $100 to pay back debts owed to me by my lenders and the remaining amount was used to buy food, clothes and other essentials for my family. We made a decision to buy a dairy cow since it will save us a great deal once it calves and the milk produced shall also be sold to meet other needs of our family in future. My husband and I rely entirely on subsistence farming to raise income that supports our family. The amount of money that we make from this subsistence farming is hardly enough to meet our needs as a family hence the thought of buying the dairy cow. I am a mother of three children with two of them still in school and I hope to get enough money from the livestock that I bought and be able to pay their school fees in time to allow them pursue their education without interruption. I am so grateful for the support that I received from GiveDirectly and very hopeful that my life shall hencefort change because of this."

"In my own opinion give directly had reduce poverty in my town and every citizen in this town life had improve from one level to another financially, i will recommend that give directly conduct this program in very communities in my county."

"Firstly I want to give thanks to givedirectly for their support to was my family and I. I am so happy that I was enrolled on this program, before then life has been so hard on me in that to even get food for my family used to be very difficult for me. The one room house I am living in has leakage all over the roof, and it's very old, I am so grateful that with the support from givedirectly I was able to build my four room house in my village for my children. I am so happy."

""Our major challenge now is my spouse is unemployed and the little business I make can not pay all of my children school fees and take care of the family need at the same time"."

""My current challenges now is I don't have enough money now to go back to school. My daughter and I currently staying in the house of a friend because I don't have money to build my own house"."

"Due to my blindness, I'm not able to do any work to sustain my son and myself. I also currently live in my mother's house due to lack of money to build my own. Those are the current challenges I'm facing."