"It was 3:00 am and by that time I was already awake because of the many thoughts and worries I had in mind, wondering how I could raise money for purchasing a land where I could construct a home. All over sudden I heard the phone beep and at first, I thought it could be bad news, so I was hesitant to check the message. On the second beep I decided to check the message and to my surprise, it was money from GiveDirectly. This was a miracle! I felt so happy and I couldn't believe it because this was the first time I was receiving such an amount of money in my life."

"I think in the near future I will start using better fertilizers from one acre fund that I have always not been able to use due to their high prices. The high quality fertilizers will enable me get more farm harvest at the end of the planting season which will then translate to more food for the family."

"Once I buy my own motorbike, I know I will be able to make a lot of money because all the profits generated will be mine. Right now I work for someone and I have to make returns to the owner every single day, which leaves me with very little money for myself. Once the profits start trickling in, I will save the cash from the motorbike business which I will use to invest in other business that will also generate more income for me that will enable me to support my family with a lot of ease."

"The biggest hardship I am facing is lack of capital to start my own business. I usually offer hairdressing services through other people's shops who pay me on commission basis. This is too little and is never enough to meet my family's basic needs like food and clothes. On a bad day, I return home without a penny and this means no food for my children."

"It was almost dawn and I heard my phone beep twice, I woke up immediately and checked the text message only to find an Mpesa message from GD. I was certain it was from them because this was the only source I was banking my hopes on for financial assistance after we were visited by their staff and informed so. I was very happy and could not even go further to check my mpesa balance not even the time it was. I could not catch sleep after that instead, I started planning on my mind how I will spend the money when morning comes."

"It has always been my desire to own a cow because this will be the beginning of taking my life to a higher level than where the transfers have elevated me to. With a cow, I can be able to sell its calf to raise money for starting a shop business which I know will be a very stable source of income for my family."

"Struggling to meet my family's daily needs is the biggest hardship I have faced in my life.My husband and I have been jobless ever since we got married we now have 5 children to feed,clothe and even cater for their education.We solely rely on jobs like weeding,cultivating and planting crops on other people's farms and sometimes we do our own small scale farming,all these are usually affected by drought which is a common phenomenon here thus not a reliable source of income."

"My biggest worry is that I have failed my children. This is because I had initially enrolled them in a private boarding school in a nearby village but due to financial constraints, as a result of prolonged drought, I was forced to re-enroll them in a public school. Seeing them come home every evening makes me sad since they had adapted to being in a boarding school."

"My desire has been to own a home. I have a piece of land and my plan is to buy iron sheets, timber,nails, doors, windows and pay labor for building my house. This house is too small, it is leaking and I have to put all my properties in one corner when it rains."

"The money was sent at around 3:00 am while I was asleep and usually I place my phone under the pillow. On this day I was awoken by the sound of the phone and upon checking the phone it was Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy that I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night and all that I had in my mind were the plans on how I would spend the money on the things we lacked."