"It's obvious without a doubt the number of challenges I'm currently facing are many but that which is outstanding is the burden of school fees. I have eight children and seven are in school. My firstborn is in secondary school and the other six are in primary. My husband who is a watchman in Kilifi earns a monthly salary of $110. It's hard to survive with that kind of salary with a family of 10 members. In one month, the children in school need roughly $100 for tuition fees and that leaves us with only $10 for other family expenses. With the current inflation and rise of price commodities in the market, surviving with that amount is a real nightmare."

"When we experienced flooding about 2 months ago, part of my house collapsed and I have had to cover a section of the walls with temporary canvas material. Consequently, I hardly sleep during rainy nights due to the cold caused by leaking and wet floor. My biggest worry is contracting diseases from mosquito infestation and soaked floors."

"When flash floods swept into our village 2 months ago, I was 9 months heavy for my fifth child. I lost my house to the raging waters and fought my way out to higher grounds despite my condition, together with my 4 children. The devastating calamity has left me homeless since then and unable to singlehandedly provide for my family, worse being a single mother."

"When my village experienced floods 3 months ago, my family of 4 sunk into poverty. I lost my one acre maize plantation that I had hoped to sell to educate my 2 children and purchase household commodities from sale of surplus. This calamity has resulted in malnutrition and food insecurity so much so that we have to skip meals."

"Since the year 2013 UpTo 2022 I have suffered with an injury on my right leg. Even though this healed in 2023, it has made it difficult for me to do casual labor and other work that can enable me to vend for myself. This has made life really difficult for me since I wish I could go work on the farm but I can't. This really makes life difficult for me."

"As a family of 4, we face significant challenges with food insecurity. My husband is currently unemployed and relies on occasional work at construction sites to provide for our family. However, the income from his casual work is insufficient to meet our needs, making it difficult to access an adequate food supply. Due to this financial strain, I have had to devise various strategies to ensure that our family's basic needs are met. Unfortunately, this year we have experienced instances where we had to go without food for two nights. Our livelihood depends heavily on agriculture, particularly rain-fed agriculture. However, the poor rainfall this year has led to complete crop failure, exacerbating our food insecurity."

"Living as a family of 13, we face numerous challenges, with food insecurity and education being our primary concerns, especially for our children. Last year, the El Niño rains during October, November, and December led to a devastatingly low harvest, as a significant portion of our farm produce was washed away by the heavy rains. Our family size makes these challenges even more daunting. This year, the situation worsened as the rains failed us once again, leaving us with no choice but to rely on expensive store-bought products that were beyond our means due to our large family. My husband, being the sole breadwinner, struggles to make ends meet with only casual work in Mombasa, leaving us in a difficult financial position. This year alone, we've had to endure three instances of going hungry, prompting me to resort to seeking casual work during the rainy seasons at neighboring farms to alleviate our situation."

"Currently I'm facing a lot of challenges but my most pressing challenge is my house. Currently, I'm living in a small mud and grass thatched house which is not very comfortable. I wish I could build a better Iron sheet house but I don't have money to do so. This makes me feel bad since I married recently and I haven't been able to build a better house for my family."

"My biggest challenge currently is getting food. This has been a big challenge that is making my life hard currently because sometimes when I don't get casual work in the farms I'm forced to go hungry. This saddens me a great deal because I hate seeing my daughter sleep without eating anything. Sometimes I'm forced to borrow food for her from my neighbours which makes me feel ashamed."

"Three months ago I lost two acres of maize to floods and I have not recovered yet from it. I had borrowed $500 from a local bank so as to invest in planting. I am now left with a huge debt since it shall accrue interest and I do not have any other source of income to use in repaying it."