"The main challenge We are facing is how to generate money to enable us paid our kids school fees. When we sell the crops from the farm, the money is insufficient to paid our kids fees and to even feed them."

"Currently the main challenge I am facing is a better dwelling house because the current house is a thatched house and is leaking which is not good for the health conditions of our son."

"Currently the main challenge I am facing is the illness that is on me. Reason is, I don't have anyone who is willing to spend on me financially or to even take good care of me."

"Poverty is too much, sometimes the landslides go with our crops in the gardens."

"It's the landslides,just yesterday behind my house soil fell off almost covering us.This has made me to worry alot because my family is at a risk"

"We face a myriad of challenges each day but the major problem that we face currently is food insecurity. Maize is our stable food and buying the commodity at a high price of $1.80 per 2Kg unlike before when we could buy it at $0.80 per 2Kg is so biting. The cost of living shot up recently and it tripled the price of maize and so putting food on the table is hard and stressful. We used to do maize production but since the outbreak of maize lethal necrosis disease the maize crops have not been doing good and so we are forced to buy at high prices which sometimes is unaffordable and on worst days when we do not have enough money to buy it we are forced to survive on porridge. It worries me a lot since my children feel bad about it."

"My left arm is not functioning well, it is feeble and can hardly support heavy work.I had gotten a minor accident and I hurt my arm. It has not healed completely to enable me to do meaningful farming like I used to do. I am not optimally doing farming as before and it worries me a big deal. My farm is wasted and it is full of weeds as it has not been well attended to this because I lack the capital to be able to employ labourers to attend to it.I disturbs me when I visit my farm and see it in the state that it is."

"My brother, 27 years is in jail and it disturbs me a lot. The unfortunate events that led to his being jailed are also haunting. He sort of had a mental problem that was on and off. So one night he hit my mother with a blunt object and killed her instantly. He was arrested and jailed his state of mind notwithstanding, he has not been able to stand a trial because is not stable in his mind, up until recently he was not even aware of what transpired. We were in court yesterday to hear the matter but it was postponed. We talked with him and we were happy to see him, we have forgiven him because we know it was not deliberate but it was because of his state of mind. We pray that he will be released soon because if he is not released it will be a double tragedy for us. He is suffering too much and if he continues cooling his heels in jail we are afraid his health might deteriorate further."

"At the moment we are faced with an acute shortage of food, especially maize which is our stable food. Last season the maize crops did not do well, there was drought and also the maize necrosis disease has been a problem for us for some time now. We are therefore forced to purchase the product from the nearby Kapkwen market that goes at $1.70 which sometimes is unaffordable because we are people of little means that depend on casual jobs which are erratic. This is coupled with other challenges like the cost of living which has spiraled in the recent past. It worries us a lot since we cannot afford a better standard of living than before. It seems we are going down from better to worse since we are not foreseeing any changes coming safe for GiveDirectly cash transfers which is a huge relief for us."

"When GiveDirectly arrived in our village, they made sure that everyone had a chance to go through the enrollment process and informed us that we would have to wait for the subsequent processes that would determine our eligibility. Even though we were curious about the outcome after enrollment, we were pleased that they took the time to explain how the process would unfold. Everyone was pleased with the detailed information, which provided a clear direction, expectations, and endpoint. I have no complaints, but I wish GiveDirectly the best of luck as they visit other villages with the same support. "