"My life is different than how it would have been if I never received the transfers in that I have bought a piece of land. I do small scale farming at home and I usually sell the surplus at the market to earn an income. I am also a teacher and I teach in one of the neighborhood school. I am still on contract basis not yet employed by the teachers service commission. The amount of money that I get through this is so small and cannot meet all the basic needs of the family. I had save some money which I had plan on buying a piece of land but it was not enough. When I received the second transfer I found it wise to buy a piece of land. Currently I have a piece of land and already I have fenced it. I am planning on doing an horticulture farming. I will sell the harvest to earn an income to meet other basic household needs of the family and even save some. When the savings is enough I will buy another piece of land. I have hope that everything will work perfectly good. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has changed my living standard."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have bought two heifers. I had always wished to start a dairy project but I didn't had money to buy the cows. I do casual jobs in the village and sometimes to get this jobs is so hard. I do small scale farming and the harvest that we get annually is for consumption. I rarely get surplus to sell it. The amount of money that I get from the casual jobs is so small and cannot meet all the basic needs of the family including paying school fees for my children. Investing in dairy farming project was just a dream. When I received the transfer from GiveDirectly I felt so happy because I knew this was my dream come true. Currently I have two heifers and when they reproduced in the next few months I will get enough milk for my family. I will sell the surplus at the market to earn an income to meet other basic household needs. I will be in a position to save some money to pay school fees for my children. My plans is to improve this dairy farming project and grow it to another level. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has changed my living standard. Were it not GiveDirectly I wouldn't have reach where I am now. God bless GiveDirectly."

"The biggest hardship we have faced is the unfavorable climatic conditions in our area. As subsistence farmers, prolonged droughts and tropical diseases have been destroying our crops. This has made it challenging for us to acquire food. Also, we have no surplus produce that could be sold to fetch income. This has made it difficult for us to accomplish some vital tasks such as building a good kitchen and house for our children."

"The biggest hardship we have faced as a family is a poor economy in our area. This has made it difficult for me and my husband to secure casual jobs that would earn us some income. We lack vital skills and knowledge for securing white-collar jobs. Also, the poor economy has forced me to do away with the dream of starting up a grocery business. Precisely, I have been anticipating losses if I start the business because almost everyone is relatively poor. As a result, it has become almost impossible for us to raise school fees for our children."

"My dream is to be a livestock farmer. I currently have 2 sheep and intend to use $300 of my transfer to add 10 sheep. Rearing sheep is a good investment because in a year it can reproduce 3 times. This will mean self employment and my family will be able to have a stable income. The remaining amount will be used to renovate and expand our house,buy two calves and buy food and clothes for the household."

"My biggest hardship is financial constraints, my husband is employed but earns around $200 that we use for our 4 children school expenses. I opened a small business but it has not picked up to bring in profit that can help my family in purchasing food, clothing or even expansion of the business itself"

"The moment I received the transfer I felt so happy. I remember vividly like yesterday. It was around 9:10 am when I heard a ringtone message from my phone. I was doing my morning chores. I stop and checked it, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a message confirming that I have received money from GiveDirectly. I immediately inform my family members and they also celebrated. I knew I would be able to pay school fees for my son who was to join form one. I heard a ringtone message from my phone. Was doing my chore. Immediately I heard the celebration from my neighbors. It was a big day for us, a day I will never forget because I have never received such amount of money before."

"For almost a year now, I had wished to complete the construction of my house which I had stopped due to insufficient funds to acquire the building materials. I spent $300 of the transfer to purchase 14 iron sheets, 30 bags of cement, and nails. Furthermore, I spent $160 to clear the fees arrears for my daughter who is in secondary school. Most of the time she was at home due to huge fee balances something that kept me worried about her performance. I also used $60 to pay part of the fee for my son who is taking a driving course. The remaining amount assisted me to purchase enough food for the family."

"Being illiterate and jobless, I had desired to provide quality education for my 2 children so that they could have a better future. I invested $98 on their educational need by clearing fees arrears and purchasing two pairs of school uniforms for each. This is because they were wearing casual clothes while going to school which was so embarrassing. Furthermore, I started goat rearing activity by acquiring 7 goats at $35 each. This is a future investment for the family. I plan to sell them when they multiply to support my children's education as well as cater to any financial emergency that may arise. I used the remaining amount to purchase clothes for myself and acquired adequate food for the family."

"My iron sheets are too old and leaking therefore I shall use $400 to buy new iron sheets and py for labor.i shall also buy a cow worth$400 so that it will help me in future in terms of fee payment for my grandchildren .Their mother is unstable mentally hence I have to take care of them."