"It was 8 in the evening when I was having dinner with my family then my phone started ringing. I was a bit surprised since I was not expecting a message from anyone at that particular hour. I then decided to check only to realize it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I was overwhelmed with joy because I knew I would achieve a lot."

"This transfer from GiveDirectly has helped me a lot. I have always wanted to rear chicken but due to financial constraints, I was not able to before. So when the money came in, I used it in constructing a poultry house and bought some chickens. We had settled for this project of rearing chicken because taking care of them is easy, it requires less maintenance, the market too for eggs and chicken is readily available. This will thus enable us to get the daily income which will hence help us in meeting our needs. I also used part of the transfer to add some furniture that was missing in the house. The rest of the money, I used to buy some foodstuffs for my family. We also bought some other household items."

"With this transfer from GiveDirectly, there is going to be a very big difference in my life. The three cows that I bought will be of great benefit to me and my family. My family will have milk for their own consumption and I will also get some for sale. The money from the sales will enable me to invest in other things. Having placed a door in the house that I was building, the house is now almost complete, I am planning to finish it so that when my children start schooling, I will not be having the stress of building a house, and hence I will be able to direct all my energy and money in paying their school fees."

"I was full of excitement when I received the message notification saying that I had received the transfer from GiveDirectly. I saw my dream of having a house of my own coming true and I thanked God for answering my prayer. I thank GiveDirectly for coming up with this program of helping the needy, may God bless you abundantly."

"When my old house felt to the ground"

"Being unable to provide basic needs for my family"

"Receiving this means a descent house for me and my grandchildren. I'm planning to use 450 dollars to construct a three bedroom house for my family. In addition to this I'll use 300 dollars to buy ten goats."

"Receiving this money means boosting my income through the small kiosk business I do. I'm planning to use 500 dollars to add more stock to my kiosk so that I can make desireble profits. I'll use a further 200 dollars to by five goats each @40 dollars."

"I grew up in a family of 11 children. My parents are just farmers and casual labourers. Life was very hard forcing me to stop my education after primary school. My parents could not afford my school fees. My education had to be sacrificed so that my two elder siblings who were in secondary school could continue. I felt so disappointed. I finished primary school last year(2019) and decided to get married this year. My dream of studying to college level came to an end."

"I have always wanted to build another house since my current house is very tiny. It is just one single room. I plan on using 300 USD to build a two roomed house. I will then use 150 USD to buy 5 goats. Goats easily survive in this kind of dry climate compared to cows. The goats will help me a lot when I start paying school fees for my child. I also want to start a grocery business just beside the road where I live. I have owned a grocery before and it was a good business venture which I would wish to restart. I will invest 150 USD into this."