"Recieving this money means I will build my kitchen because the one I currently use is made of grass and during rainy season we encounter alot of problems as a family, I will also buy atleast two dairy cows which will assist me to have milk for my children and sell the surplus to the local market which will assist me get money to buy food and continue paying for school fees. I plan to spend KES 45,000 in building a kitchen and use KES 50,000 in buying the two dairy cows."

"Recieving this money means I will build my house which has been in bad condition and buy a sewing machine which will then allow me start a business of being a tailor. I have been a single mother since we separated with my husband long time ago and he defied from responsibilities of taking care of the children, I then decided to look for any casual job that will sustain us in the family, so working away from home makes me to strain alot and sometimes my children have to go without meals since I am not around and they are still young. This really worries me alot. I plan to spend KES 60,000 to build my house and spend KES 50,000 in buying second hand sewing machine. The remaining I buy food and stock them."

"My husband passed on 6 years ago and my daughter left her two children aged 6 and 10 years old under my care and went to get married somewhere else.I was forced to take up the responsibility of raising them.With my age my health is deteriorating and I am not productive as I used to hence I cannot do farming.This makes me depend wholly on my son and it I feel am a burden to him.This is the biggest hardship I have experienced in my life."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I can proudly mention is the fact that I now sleep in a decent shelter. Before the coming of GiveDirectly, we used to sleep in a very miserable environment which resulted in an awful life in general. The house was small and very old; its roof could leak excessively and during the rainy seasons, we all had to shift to other people's compounds. In the process of seeking shelter some of my properties like furniture and clothes could get damaged which was always a loss for me. In addition to that, my spouse who is in his old age (70s) could sometimes get sick from the cold nights. This has been frustrating me for a long but I had no means that would help me buy the necessary materials needed for a new house. Being the family breadwinner relying on the casual jobs ie burning and selling charcoal whereby in a day I could earn KES 250, which was very little to cater to the needs of the three family members and building a house at the same time. Therefore after receiving the money, I had to settle to constructing the house which is the permanent solutions to all the troubles we have been through."

"The biggest hardship was when my husband became sick in 2011 when he was diagnosed with a stroke that paralyzed him. He was therefore not able to run a family business he had started, we ended up selling it. The money from selling the business was used to cater for his medication until he passed on three years ago. Since then we just rely on our farm which is very unsustainable."

"The biggest hardship has been lack of funds. Being the only provider"

"Receiving this money means a better investment for me. I have been wanting to own something of my own that I can depend on in times of need or emergencies. I plan to purchase a dairy cow which I intend to look after to give me more in the future. I'm looking at this as an investment, as it will help me in the future by selling it or its offspring. It will help me in paying school fees for my children whom I anticipate to be in secondary school in five years. This will cost me KES 50000. For the rest of the amount, I plan to cement my house. Currently, it's bare and it has a lot of dust which is quite uncomfortable."

"As a parent it is always hard to see your children drop out of school and you are helpless about it. The biggest challenge has been to pay school fees for my child since I am a single parent and I don't have enough resources and or a stable income"

"The biggest hardship in my life has been having to survive without a college education despite having passed well in high school. I was hopeless thinking that my future has just gone down the drain."

"The relatively many motorcycles in our area offering taxi services have rendered the industry less profitable. This acts as the biggest hardship we have faced as a family because we depend primarily on the motorcycle business. Precisely, clients have become scarce, something that negatively impacts our daily income."