"Receiving this money means decent housing and good education for my kids. I have 5 school going children. One is in secondary school and the other four in primary school. Paying their school fees is a very big challenge for me. I will use the whole of the first transfer to clear all the school fee arrears. I will then use 20,000 shillings of the second transfer to repair my house. My house is very weak, and considered the strong winds in this area, there is a chance my house will fall. Finally, I will use 30,000 Kenyan shillings to buy two cows and an ox drawn plough. I will use the cows to cultivate my land and cultivate for other people thus earning an income."

"Financial Crisis is the biggest challenge that I have ever faced. I am an unskilled person getting a good job to sustain my family 9 is a challenge to me. The small business that I do earns me little profit. I majorly depend on my husband who does casual labor a job that is tiresome and earns him a little amount of $3 per day. This amount can not fully sustain all the basic needs of the family. This has led to my children been send out of school to collect school fees, thus leading to their low performance in school."

"The biggest problem that I have ever faced in my life is the lack of a sustainable source of income. I am a rubber rapper earning very little of $3 per week. This amount is very minimal to even buy food for the family. Most of the time we skip meals or even sometimes we miss meals. I have been asking for help from my relatives something that ashames me a lot."

"Food insecurity is the biggest challenge that I have ever faced in life. This is because every coin I earn from my job of rubber tapping, I spend on buying food for my family. This has hindered me from doing other basic needs of my family like taking my children to good schools. But with the help of Givedirectly, I am assured that all my children's education will continue."

"Receiving this money means a spacious house to my family. This is because I am leaving in one bedroom house which is small in case I host visitors. I plan to spend Kshs.40,000 to build a three-bedroom house that will be enough for me and my visitors. I will also spend Ksh.15,000 to buy five indigenous goats at Ksh.3,000 each. The remaining amount will cater for bedding and other basic needs such as food."

"Receiving this money means building a new house for my family. I am currently living in a small house that is not enough to accommodate my whole family. I have a family of eight children. Some of them are teenagers and we cannot sleep in the same room. This forces them to look for shelter from other neighbors. I used to have a two bedroom house but unfortunately it caught fire and burned down to ashes. This made us to erect a single room structure which we cook and sleep in the same room. This makes it difficult to even host a visitor for a night. I intend to use the first cash transfer from Givedirectly to build a two bedroom, iron sheet roofed house which will cost $500 in total. I will then use the second cash transfer to buy two beds and mattresses, food and pay school fees for my children."

"Unemployment is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life. Being an illiterate woman makes it even worse to get jobs in the village. Following the effects of Covid 19, people were retrenched and others fired as many jobs are done online. This has made it difficult to get even casual jobs since the people we look up to to give us casual jobs like construction jobs are jobless . I currently depend on charcoal business that is not reliable to meet our basic needs. This has made life more difficult for us as a family."

"Receiving this money means the continuation of education for my children. This I plan to achieve by practicing livestock keeping. I intend to spend 60,000 shillings to purchase two indigenous dairy cows and 5 goats. This is going to generate income for our family. In a day I can sell at least 5 liters of milk and make 250 shillings, I will save the money from the sale of milk for my children's future education. Also, the goats produce very fast and multiply. I plan to sell them in the future and educate my kids who are still in the lower classes. Apart from the livestock, I will spend the remaining amount on house consumption like food."

"Receiving this transfer means continuous education for my children. My dream has been to educate them to higher levels so that they can have a bright future. Currently they are in primary school. To achieve this, I plan to spend 50,000 shillings to purchase 10 goats at 5000 shillings each. This is going to generate income to my family because goats multiple very fast and can sell them and pay school fees. Also goats can survive in our area because it is dry. Other than that, I intend to spend the remaining amount on purchasing house items e.g beds and materials for us to be able to live comfortable."

"Low self-esteem has been the biggest hardship I have faced in life. We have been struggling to make ends meet and I am employed as a mechanic in a nearby town. The job itself is tiresome yet I earn an average wage of Ksh 500 a day. I have 5 school-going children, 2 in secondary level and 3 in primary level. In total, I pay approximately Ksh 100,000 per year as school fees. Due to the nature of my work, raising that amount is extremely hard. I at times rely on well-wishers to raise school fees and this has led to a lack of self-esteem."