"When i receive this money, i will build an ironsheets house because grass is very scarce."

"The biggest hardship i have face is illness. I was diagnosed with Hepatitis B and it has affected my physical ability to do work normally."

"It was early in the morning when I was awoken by a message notification in my phone. At first, I ignored it but I felt sleepless hence I decided to check it. I was happily surprised to see it was Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I was filled with joy and I immediately woke up my wife to share the good news and she was so happy too. We didn't sleep anymore, my wife went ahead to prepare family breakfast and after taking it I proceeded to withdraw the money as early as 7.00 am."

"I woke up in the morning and as usual, I decided to check my phone and to my surprise, there was a message of which at first I thought it was the Safaricom promotional texts and was almost ignoring it but on reading it, I found out that it was a transaction message from GiveDirectly confirming that a huge amount of money had been sent to me. I couldn't blink as I have never received such a big amount of money in my entire life. I thought I was dreaming but my wife confirmed that the message was really true by checking M-Pesa balance. My happiness knew no bounds as we started celebrating by singing and jumping all around the compound, for God had blessed us through GiveDirectly."

"The biggest hardship in my life is lack of enough support for sustaining my family welfare since am almost a single parent."

"Receiving this money means I will be able to start poultry rearing. I am planning to start poultry rearing because it is easier to start and poultry have a ready market. I previously worked as a casual employee to a rich man in our village who reared poultry and I gained a lot of knowledge from him and this transfer will now enable me to start my own. The eggs produced by the chicken will be used both for our consumption and the rest will be sold to get money to meet our other medical and school fees needs. "

"It was with great joy that I received the cash transfer. I woke my children up and we all read the message again. I could not sleep anymore. I immediately fixed breakfast for us so as to get to go to the agent early to withdraw the cash. Thereafter I went to the market where cows are sold to buy them."

"At first, I used to be borrowing seats from my neighbor whenever I had visitors and when my friends or neighbors visited me, I would sit with them outside since I did not have any seat for them to sit on. This is now a history to me since I have been able to purchase enough seats using my first transfers. I even feel more confidenr inviing people to my home."

"The moment I received my money, my family and I were overwhelmed with happiness. It dawned on me that our troubles with my in-laws were soon coming to an end. This revelation gave me a great joy."

"I think the message came in at around 3.00 am because that is the time my husband woke me up to tell me that we had received the money. First, he told me he thought the message was from one of his colleagues until he read it that it had come from GiveDirectly. I was so happy. I wished daylight could come first, I felt like the sun was taking longer than normal to rise which was no the case though. Just the anxiety to start spending the money was overwhelming me."