"The biggest difference that the money brought in my life is that I was able to make major repairs on my house for my family so that they stay in a better place which is more secured. Apart from that, I was also able to pay school fees for my sister who had some arrears and offsetting the balance had been quite an uphill task. I am glad all that is now behind us."

"I am planning to quit the current casual jobs that I currently do for a living and open a boutique which I am sure will turn my life around because it is something that I have seen most of my friends do and succeed. This is also a less strenuous job that will give my body the much-needed rest it deserves after being in the hard-labour industry for such long time."

"It was at around 6 am on the 6th of November, I was not yet awake but the buzz of my phone ringing with a new message got me up. I first got on my knees to thank God for the new day and did not bother to check the message immediately having assumed that it was the normal Safaricom messages. I carried on with my house chores as usual up to around 7:30 am when I decided to look into my phone. To my amusement, it an Mpesa indicating that I had received money from GD. I busted out in tears of joy for I knew that my long-awaited plan to build a home for my family is finally going to be accomplished."

"Taking back my mind to the moment we realized that the promise we were given by GiveDirectly came to pass always makes me shade some tears. It was the best day ever in my life, the shortest day which seemed to have ended on a half-day due to the great joy and internal celebration we had in our hearts. we decided to keep it to ourselves since at then we weren't sure whether other villagers had received. To keep ourselves out of their curiosity, we pretended as if we never received until we confirmed that it had happened to every other person whose door was marked during registration. That was the time when we came out celebrating. We saw the hopes and ideas we had been having coming to pass and the reason to really thank GiveDirectlty for delivering on their great promise."

"When I saw the two messages, I did not believe myself and I had to wake up my wife for her to confirm and she indeed told me that it was true. At that instant, I was filled with joy and I sang praises to the Almighty for the blessings He had given unto us. My wife also joined me in praising God for what He had done for us through GiveDirectly."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is having a roof over my head. Nowadays I share the same prayers with my neighbors who have iron-roofed houses. I also want the rains to fall too knowing that my children are secure and will not be rained on. They are no longer scared too like they were when we were staying in a grass thatched house. You see, something funny about these grass thatched houses are dark even at daytime when the sun is up and sending a child in the next room to get you something makes them feel like you are sending them to hell. This is no longer the case."

"In the village we do not have access to electric power supply, this most of the time forces me to switch off my phone to save on the little-charged battery I have in the night when I do not expect so many calls. It was different on this day, I did not switch it off, I do not have a specific reason why, but on this night my phone was on. At 3.00 am, I heard a message tone ring, apparently, I also found myself awake too on this very night. I had to check, and that is when I noticed GiveDirectly had sent me money. The night seemed so long. I was so happy. I wanted morning to come so that I start spending the money."

"Buying wheat flour and making nice chapati for the children in our community, which is served with a meal containing rice is a perfect show of celebration. This is how we changed the mood of our young children to make them feel and share the taste of our feeling the moment we received the money. I may not be able to express in words how best we shared the joy but all I can say is that everyone in our family was very happy and still very happy as we break it down to the expensnes."

"In the next six months l expect to have saved some money to pay school fee for my grandchildren."

"In the next six months l expect to have started business of hiring plastic chairs to villages."