"I am a subsistence farmer, I plant cassava, vegetables, bananas, and maize. The past three seasons have been tough since I have not been able to harvest as much to provide for my family. Going to bed on an empty stomach has become a frustrating norm. Rain, rain, rain if only I knew how to summon it, I would, and maybe all this hunger and starvation would be behind us."

"Have you ever felt like a failure as a parent? This is my everyday thought. I am a wife and a mother of eight. I am grateful I have a roof over my head but the fact that we live together in one room bothers me. Among the eight three are boys and all are growing up, I am afraid I might be exposing them to adulthood before it is time."

"My heart is crying out for independence, making my own money to cater to my personal needs. I do not like the fact that I have to ask for money from my husband anytime I need something. It is embarrassing that even money for airtime has to come from his pocket. How I long that I could have a business to facilitate my daily upkeep."

"GiveDirectly arrived in the village when we had run out of ideas for how to deal with the difficult economic times that had caused most households to go hungry while their children missed school. This was during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when every business and job had been rendered non - functional. On the other hand, due to the devastating drought that had destroyed our crops, nothing was happening on our farms. I was overjoyed to receive a free cash transfer and the freedom to spend it however I saw fit with my family. Many families were able to save their livelihoods and make sound decisions that would keep them going even after the final transfer. The project coordination and detailed information provided by the field officers were satisfying and instilled confidence in spending because they assured us that they did not expect us to pay it back later."

"I currently face a problem of poverty in that I cannot even afford to buy a cow that can provide us with milk for both home use and selling to make money. I am also affected with land slides and flash floods which makes us live bad life because my house is just next the stream that makes a lot of noise and water reaches the compound when it gets full. In addition, I lack school fees to go back to school because I was admitted at Islamic University in Uganda for a Diploma in Primary Education but I didn't even start due to lack of money. Due to inability to support my family, my wife left for Kenya and left me two children who are now staying with my Uncle."

"I am a casual laborer doing all sorts of jobs. My income per day is approximately $2. I have a family of five members and this money is mostly used for food. My children who are schooling at Sosodemu primary have been at home for two weeks now due to school fees balances. Each has a balance of $ 10. It has been very hard for me to offset the balance due to the lack of a job. The performance of my daughters at school has gone down. This is stressing me a lot."

"I am a single mother of three children and also living with my mother. When I was young, I suffered from polio which left my left arm paralyzed. I have a challenge working with one arm. As a mother, I must work and give quality education to my children. My health issues has restricted me from working and as a result, I find it hard to get school fees for my son who is about to join university early next year. His secondary school education was sponsored by the Ganze sub-county education funds program. The program is no longer their since the leadership has changed. He did his final examination on March 2022."

"GiveDirectly is a life-supporting organization. It came at a time when I need the help most and rescued me. Through it, I was able to build a spacious house for my family, pay school fees for my children as well as get some food for my family. Before, it was a struggle to keep food on the table because my husband and I do not have defined sources of income. I only echo what the organization did and I do not have any objection to its operations."

"When I received the second transfer, I first opted to buy some livestock as a security for the future. Livestock does multiply and they can be converted to monetary value when the need arises. Therefore, I bought one cow for $75 and three goats for $90. As of now two goats gave birth to twin calves each. After that, I looked at how the food prices had inflated and I opted to buy three sacks of maize at once to ensure food security at home. I spent $65 per sack. As of now, I am happy because I am thinking of other things apart from the head-breaking food issue. Initially, as a family, we used to go without food for at least two days a week. As of now, I am happy because my family has an access to food. Since I am a mother of six school-going children, I used $226 to pay school fees for them. $176 went to one secondary school child while $50 went to the five primary school children. I took this step after they were sent home for school fees. Currently, I am happy that I was able to act quickly because I had the GiveDirectly cash. If I reflect, I would not have acted quickly the way I did if it were not for the transfers. This is because my only source of income was from selling firewood which was unreliable."