"It was early in the morning when I received a notification on my phone. On checking the contents, I realised that it was a message from GiveDirectly informing me that I had received my first transfer. I was very happy to receive the money which I never expected I would receive in my life."

"In the next six months, I hope to have finished plastering my mum's house and will be saving towards putting up a kiosk for my mum."

"In the next six months, I am hopeful that my tailoring business will have been popular in the village and being popular I am guaranteed more customers which will mean more revenue. With the revenue earned, I can take care of my children."

"In the next six months, I am hoping to have to build a house for my family. A place where they can call home away from the rental houses. This will give freedom to the household members."

"The transfer has enabled me to buy a new mattress and a new bed to sleep on comfortably. I was sleeping on old rags and worn-out mats. GiveDirectly has changed my life since I am now enjoying a comfortable sleep unlike before. Having good beddings to sleep on is the biggest difference in my life."

"Building a new decent house to me is the biggest difference in my daily life. The house that had been my shelter for long collapsed and I could not afford to build a new one immediately for my family. This forced me to seek shelter from my neighbour's hut. Being a single mother, I only depend on charcoal burning as my income-generating activity. It's tiresome and still, the cash is very little to even fulfil the family basic needs is challenging to me. I don't think I would have managed to build a new house were it not for the financial support from GiveDirectly. I am now in the process of building the house."

"If I could not have received money from give directly I am very sure I could not have managed to lease land and planted sugarcane in it. I could continue cultivating my small farm that I was cultivating before. But now I am very sure of getting more produce that will lead to more profit. "

"I solely depend on casual labour of supplying water to a nearby hotel manually(on my back) on a daily basis in order to fend for my family. The little I get paid from this is hardly enough to cater for the basic needs of my family and as a result I have to engage myself in other casual jobs like on people's farms as a gardener. This kind(s) of work have taken a toil at my body and I hardly get enough sleep since I feel pain all night on my body."

"Charcoal burning is what I have known in my life since I lack skills to acquire a better job. Despite this job being very tiresome, laborious and requires a lot of time to prepare it earns me very little money.On average I earn 3 dollars per sack selling a sack 3 to 4 days of preparing. I have wished to start a sustainable source of income but I have not accomplished my desire due to financial instability. Therefore, lack of a reliable source of income has been the biggest hardship in my life."

"I raise livestock in my farm and this has turned out to be my main source of income. The money from Give Directly will help me improve more and more . I will start by buying a chuff cutter machine worth Ksh.30,000(300 USD). This will make feeding the cows easy and faster giving me more time and strength to do other duties. I will also use Ksh 20,000(200 USD) to improve their structures. My sheep shed is in a bad condition and therefore I will use part of the transfer to expand and make it more decent. I will then build a bigger and better store where I can store animal feeds. All these will ensure good health for the livestock and in turn high productivity."