"Lack of school fees is the biggest hardship I have ever faced in my life. I was forced to drop out of school at form two since my father who was a casual laborer couldn't afford to pay fee for the seven of us forcing me to get married at my tender age."

"I spent it mostly on farming activities (5 bags of fertilizer), bought 6 bags of groundnuts, bought 2 acres of land"

"Paid workers for making bricks, buying cement and brought iron sheets to improve my house"

"I had no food so I had to buy bags of maize, a bicycle to use for travelling from my home to the market and other places, blankets and a bed because I didn't have a good place to sleep and lastly iron sheets for my house"

"My biggest hardship was brought by my husband after his refusal to feed his kids and left the household on my hands .I am getting difficulties in feeding my two children."

"The biggest hardship I encountered in life is bringing up of my children in poverty.I faced a lot of difficulties in bringing my children under poor background because my husband was not employed anywhere and he used to rely on white color jobs and we are all not educated so we have passed a difficulty life."

"My biggest hardship happened in the year 1999 when I got a car accident , broke my right leg and the vehicle never had insurance meaning I had to cater for all the treatment expenses for myself.This is the hardest thing I faced in my life."

"Unemployment is the biggest challenge that I have ever faced in my life. My father denied me access to education which has contributed to this miserable life that I am currently living. This lack of education has gone along way to affecting my children education since I have no source of a stable income to sustain the needs of my family. Over the years I have been surviving on casual jobs like a watchman in a local secondary school. Later on in 2005 I lost my eye sight that made it difficult for me to engage in any economic activities for my family. I now depend on my wife to wash other people's clothes to get food and also the subsistence farming form our small piece of land."

"My biggest hardship that have I ever faced in my life is the death of my six children and my husband. I only have one child who also do not care about me anymore. This has been the stumbling block that has contributed to my low living standard. Being an old woman of over 70 years old is very difficult to work to get money for my basic needs. At this age, most of my peers are taken care of by their children which is not the case for me. I always shed tears when I recall this scenario in my life to an extent of questioning God of what did I do to deserve this kind of life."

"I was tending to my animals the moment I heard my phone ringing when I checked, I saw a Mpesa alert showing that I had received money from GiveDirectly, I was filled with joy and happiness, It was the happiest day in my life that I will not forget in a hurry, Immediately I called my husband to inform him of the good news, and he too was happy and grateful."