"This disease which affects our maize has been a great challenge to us for a long time.we have not harvested maize in the past five years .We had to go to Chebunyo our nearby market to buy maize and this was quite expensive for me."

"In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well in assisting the poor households in the community through unconditional cash transfer. I don't see anything that it does not do well."

"I am an orphan .I have been involved with casual jobs to try and survive. My mother passed on long time ago when I was class three. Also,my father died 13 years ago. Life has been unbearable and a struggle for us . Growing up ,I have been staying with my elder sister in her house .She has children and I saw it as a burden to provide for her children and myself ,that is why I decided to fend for myself in my house. I dropped in form one because of lack of school fees and started doing casual jobs which I still do to date. I intend to buy a dairy cow ,build a kitchen house and marry . As you can see I have reached marriageable age ,I have always wanted to marry but because of lack of income I have not been able. The dairy cow will cost USD 4500,the kitchen construction will cost around UD 3000 ,the rest of the money I will use to buy household items for use."

"I have always wanted to own my own small business that will continually give me income to meet my family's needs. I plan to invest the whole amount in starting up an Mpesa enterprise.The returns or profit from this business will help me meet my basic needs.Receiving this money means financial freedom for me."

"Receiving this money means my long time dream of have a better house will be fulfilled. I have a grass thatched house and it tends to get smoky when cooking. It's even difficult to cook when you have visitors. I plan to construct a iron roofed house. This means i will be able to collect rainwater. To get clean water you have to buy from the water kiosk within our village but it's not sustainable. I expect to cost around 200 dollars. My husband love chickens and he has always wanted to start eggs business. So when we get this money we also plan to purchase layers. This will help us generate more income and also household use. I plan to use 200 dollars of my transfer to buy them. The rest of the money we use for our personal needs."

"When i get this money I want to buy a heifer. Usually my mother gives us milk for our household use but since I am now independent I need to provide for my family. My area is prone to draught, so i need an ordinary cow who can survive with this weather conditions. A good heifer cost around 300-350 dollars. I also need to buy a water tank. We get water from the river far from my household. This water is not even safe for drinking. A water tank of 2300 litres will go a long way. This will cost me around 1700 dollars. The rest of the money we use to for household needs."

"I have always wished to empower my spouse, by initiating a project that she can engage in to support me in providing for our household needs, but lack of finances has made this dream impossible. I will therefore use $500 of my transfer as capital to initiate a Poultry keeping project, where I will spend $100 in building a modern poultry house and $400 in buying 200 chicks for a start. I will then use $300 to buy a dairy cow whose daily earnings from selling at least 5 liters of milk for $1.5 will ensure no more worries about where to get food for our household's daily consumption."

"Financial constraint is the biggest hardship in my life. I get about $ 60 per month from my farming activities yet I spend about $ 1000 in school fees alone. I have to look up to my husband to fill the deficit. His small business also earns him approximately $120 per month which is shared between the two families as this is a polygamous family."

"The biggest hardship in my life is food insecurity. I am a subsistence farmer relying on casual labour to earn a living, getting about $2 per day. This means that I don't money to buy farm inputs as I spent my income on foodstuffs. I always plant too little and also not on time. It leads to poor yields that does not feed my family sufficiently, year in year out."

"Some time back, I used to own several cows which came in handy in milk production. Unfortunately, I was got up by school fees, I ended up selling all of them to cater to my children's school fees as that was the only source of income I had. When I received the second transfer, I used KES 20000 to clear school fee arrears. I also bought two dairy cattle to replenish what I had lost before. I used the remaining amount of money to add stock to a business I had started earlier (buying and selling oxen at a profit)."