"Unemployment is the biggest challenge I have ever faced in my life. Being an illiterate person, makes it even more worse to get a stable job with a stable income. This makes it difficult for me to meet even the basic needs of my family. I solely depend on casual jobs to earn an income. The charcoal burning business is no longer reliable since there are no trees to cut and use for charcoal burning. The much I can earn in a month in case I get casual jobs is $20. This has made life more difficult as I survive from hand to mouth."

"Receiving this money means self employment and investment for me. For the past five years, my biggest ambition was to start a business of selling second hand clothes in my community. For the first transfer, I will use 20,000 shillings to buy second hands clothes and 5,000 Kenyan shillings to rent premises for the business. I will be reselling the clothes at profit. I will earning a profit of approximately 100 Kenyan shillings per piece of cloth sold. I will then combine the remaining money of the first transfer and the second transfer to buy 10 goats. The goats will be like an investment for me. My 4 children are still young, the eldest is 8 years old. By the time they will be ready for higher formal education, the goats will have multiplied. I will sell the goats and get money to pay school fees for my children."

"Receiving this money means a decent house and good education for my children. My biggest aspiration is to own a decent house and see my 5 children excel in their education. For the past five years, my wife, my two children and I, have been living in a house that leaks during the rainy season. The moment I receive the first transfer, I will use 10,000 Kenyan shillings to seal the leaking points and replace the old iron sheets on the roof. By doing so, I will have sorted my first goal. The remaining amount of the first transfer, together with the second transfer, will go straight into school fees of my five children. I will use 35,000 Kenyan shillings to pay school for the whole year to one child who is in secondary school. The remaining amount will help me clear the school fees of the remaining 4 children who are in primary school."

"I work as a cook in a school where my children are schooling. My monthly income is usually $40 and this goes to my children's fees and this means at the end of the month, I never get anything to take home. Therefore, the lack of a reliable source of income is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life."

"I am unemployed and as well my husband engages in casual jobs in Mombasa. This has made us not able to raise enough funds to take our children to school and as well build a spacious house for our family. Unemployment is the biggest hardship I have ever faced in my life."

"My father died at my early age when I had not started school. Being the second born in my family, I was obliged to look for small jobs in Mombasa town to fend for my dear mother who was unemployed. I found myself unable to go to school, and this has made me illiterate. However, I have always have the urge to ensure my children do not undergo similar challenge of not going to school. I have always have a dream to ensure my children continually go to school inorder to achieve their academic goals for I believe Education is the key to good life. My husband is unluckily not permanently employed and so, raising my children through school has been a real challenge. They are usually sent home for fees and this really disappoints my desire and dream of seeing my children comfortably get education. Having not gone to school and being unable to smoothly take my children to school is the biggest hardship I have ever faced in my life."

"My life is different than it would have been if I had not received the transfer in so many ways. My life has changed a lot with the transfers sent to me and my family. It would have taken me a long time to build a house , but I am now building my house because of the transfers. Having people rent my new house will mean that I am receiving extra money every month and this will help me with all my household responsibilities. I have also managed to buy so many things like enough food and paid for other responsibility. This would have not been possible without the help of GD."

"I have been living on this ancestral land for 30 years now and the most painful thing is the fact that doing farming on the same piece of land is no longer productive. I have desired to buy productive land to enhance my production but due to lack of finances, this has never been possible. Once I receive the cash grant from GiveDirectly, I intend to spend a better portion of my transfers ($800) to purchase the land on which I will be doing my farming. The remaining amount will help me to support my children's education. This is generally what receiving this money mean to me."

"Financial Crisis is the biggest challenge that I have ever faced in my life. I am a housewife and my husband is doing casual labor of tapping palm wine. He earns little of $100 per month. This amount only caters to the basic needs of the family. Therefore we lack the capital to purchase our land."

"Receiving this money means a decent house to my family. Am planning to spend $800 of my transfer to construct a semi-permanent house that will make me live a decent life. Currently, am living in a house which is leaking and small. This house is a shame to me because there is no place for visitors to rest. I will spend the remaining amount of my transfer to buy 5 goats which will act as a long-term investment project for my household."