"It was around 5 am when I heard the notification from my mobile phone. When I checked the message, I realized it was an Mpesa message from Give Directly. They had sent my first transfer. I was so excited and I couldn't sleep afterwards. I kept on thinking of how I would use the money. I really feel lucky to be one of the beneficiaries."

"In the next six months, I want to use the savings to buy building materials to use in building a new house. The one I am currently living in is in a bad condition and buying grass after every six months to renovate the roof is costly. I would rather build a new house once and sort the issue once and for all."

"Receiving this money means that I will construct a nother house for my family members. Right now Iam sharing a house with my sisters-in-law and the house is small."

"My biggest hardship right now is lack of money to educate the children. School authorities always send my children back home because I have not cleared their fees."

"Receiving this money means that I will construct two rooms to add to my existing house. The balance of the money I will buy two cows for my children. When I keep these cows well, they will produce and I will sell some for my children's education."

"The moment I received my money, I felt so happy for such an organization to come, help and fulfill its promise to us."

"My life will improve after purchasing a motorbike for transportation business. This is because the profits will enable me to provide basic needs like treatment, food and more so paying school fees for my children. Currently, I'm still depending on casual labour to meet some of the needs in my family."

"Upon receiving my money from GiveDirectly, I was overwhelmed my joy and thank God for this gift of cash because I was very sure that I would plaster my house and pay children's school fees."

"When my mother passed away a couple of months ago, I was in dire need of cash for my transportation to the village to attend the funeral, so I took a loan from my mobile banking services because I had no other option. I was not able to repay the loan in time because I still had some other emergencies to take care of such as school fees, but I did so using part of this month's transfer to avoid an accumulation of interest. I used some of the money pay school fees for my children and spent the rest on foodstuff."

"The biggest difference in my life is to see that I am living a healthy life now as I can afford to get the treatment and drugs that I need to continue with my dosage. Before getting this money, I was always worried on how I would raise money to pay off that debt and continue with the treatment. I am really happy that I got this money."