"My long time ambition has been to build a better house for my family. Being a small subsistence farmer, my 0.5 acre maize farm can only produce food for family consumption with no surplus to earn me income. When I receive this money, I am going to build a two roomed house to give my husband and I comfort and dignity. We will leave the current house for our children to sleep in. "

"I have connected electricity in my house with GiveDirectly's transfers which had brought a lot of change in my life . Previously, I was using lamps which consumed a lot of fuel hence I had to spend 20 KES per day for kerosene and to me it was costly bearing in mind the low cost of income I make . I am glad since with electricity in our house I am no longer in the darkness thus it has relieved us from the cost of buying kerosene and boosted the security in my house . Today, I charge my neighbors' phones at a fee . What interests me the most is that my child can study at night until late without worries of kerosene getting exhausted."

"My life has change in a big way given opportunity to explain at times I lack words to say . Having peace of mind and joy that I never expected at this particular point in time after acquiring a decent spacious two roomed house tells it all . Before, my house had big cracks and when it rained at night we could stay at one safest corner of the house to avoid being soaked up with water. The instability of the house made me worry of jeopardizing my family's safety but unfortunately I had no option due to limited resources at hand . I am happy since I have gotten a house I was dreaming of for a long time . Coincidentally, with the heavy rains my old house collapsed recently after we had evacuated to the new one . Thanks to GiveDirectly you are a life saver ."

"I am a widow and the property I can peg on to date are the five cubical rentals my spouse left for me 12 years ago . For those years I have been doing causal jobs around the village unfortunately the income could barely support any development project but rather basic household needs such as food and school fees . This lead to the houses deterioration and , as a result, I had to lower the rental charges to lure the tenants who felt the conditions of the house didn't warrant their habitation and the one tenant who had second thoughts of relocating to other rentals left two months ago . This was a big loss to me because I was not able to cater to my daily needs and to make matter worse , I was unable to raise money to take my child to school , therefore, she had to drop out for a while . With GiveDirectly's transfers I am glad that I have renovated them hence my certainty of doubling my income through these house shall be realized after the completion of the renovation . Meeting my family basic needs especially paying my child's education will no longer be a problem . At the moment she is in school since I used part of the second transfer to enroll her with ."

"The joy and peace of mind that I have gained from paying my children school fees with GiveDirectly's transfer is a life changer. I am glad that through this entire year they got to attend school consistently which improved their performance unlike before where they stayed home for one month while we looked for money when school was in session. For instance , paying for my two children's who are in secondary school fees has allowed them to have humble time for their studies . In addition , acquiring goats is a security for my children's education . Therefore , I am hopeful that through selling the off springs of the goats in future their education and other needs will be taken care of."

"Before, I would struggle with financial constrain issues that were never ending . I feel these challenges were attributed with the low payment of 100 KES from doing manual work at a nearby sugarcane farm over the years . Despite all my struggles, I fell short in meeting some of the family needs like paying school fees . Therefore , they were sent home for school fees more often which affected their performance in school . With GiveDirectly's transfer I paid school fees for the whole year and now I am glad since their performance have improved because of their consistence attendance. Secondly , I own a spacious house where all my family members can sleep in hence I am no longer worried of my sons sleeping at my neighbor's like before due to lack of space."

"GiveDirectly's transfers has brought a huge change in my life since I have started small on tea plantation project . Initiating , I would admire such projects but it required relative large amount of capital and what I was left with was to admire my neighbor's farm who were well of . I am hoping that late next year the tea ought to have matured . There shall be a realization of high profits from the sales and these amount of money shall be helpful in the future in meeting most of my family's expenses like payment of school fee for my children ."

"Having my own sewing machine has greatly transformed my life in so many ways. This is because previously I used to hire from a friend and in the end pay her on a monthly basis. It was a challenge for me in that, I had to share the little money I got with the owner of the machine. It was so difficult for me to settle all my bills. This made me depend on loans from different banks so that I can send my children to school. The story is now different because I can settle my own bills including paying school fees for my children because I have my own sewing machine courtesy of GiveDirectly that I do not hire at any cost. whatever I am earning is all mine. I am so grateful."

"It was around 6: 30am while I was doing some cleaning then I heard my phone vibrating. I was a bit nervous, I quickly checked what the message was all about. After reading the content I realized that it was an mpesa message from GD. They had sent my first transfer as they had promised during enrollment. I was so glad since it was my first time receiving such a huge amount of money."

"I expect my life to change in the next six months in that I will have saved good money in the merry go round group to enable me to clear the school fees for my children on time. I have three children in secondary school and it is my wish to ensure that the finished their studies well."