"In the years to come, my goal is to establish my own eatery. I believe this business is more profitable than others since people require food daily. Moreover, an eatery is more sustainable as it generates more revenue. After harvesting the butternut from my farm, I intend to use the proceeds to turn my dream into a reality. I am optimistic that I will achieve this goal, as I am grateful for the successes I have accomplished thus far."

"In the coming year and beyond, my goal is to provide comfortable support for my daughter as she starts university, as she represents our hope for a better future. To achieve this, my plan is to increase my investment in maize farming. I am immensely grateful for the support that has enabled us to transform our lives, and I look forward to continuing on this positive path."

""Have you ever imagined watching your children crying because of hunger?" This is the reality of my life at the moment. Considering my charcoal work which is low paying and time-consuming, it usually takes me a month to make $32. This money is hardly enough to sustain all our needs and consequently, my children have been on the bad end. They have always been sent home due to a lack of fees. As a father, I have felt the pain of desperately watching them miss classes. In addition, I am forced to do this work despite having some metal plates in my hand. The pain after doing this work makes me weak and I usually feel depressed. What a life! I, therefore, consider the lack of a reliable source of income as my main challenge."

"Lack of house for the family is the challenge I am facing. This has forced me to seek shelter during night time from neighbors and live the children and the wife use the house I have."

"I was born without any complications. However, last year I developed some problems with my legs. They periodically become very painfully such that I cannot walk. I have undergone through medication but the problem is still disturbing me. I cannot walk for a long distance now. This is the challenge I am currently facing."

"I have been suffering from ulcers for three years now. This has affected me such that I cannot engage myself in any work. This has caused my children to have accumulated school fee balances. I feel bad sometimes seeing my children out of school due to lack of school fees."

"Lack of employment has been a challenge for me. I do charcoal burning as my job which is tedious and it is illegal. The forest department in the country birds charcoal burning. I take the risk because I have no any other job and have a family to take care of."

"I was just unwinding under a tree at around 3 PM when my grandson informed me that I had received my first cash transfer. At that precise moment, my heart was filled with joy since I knew that I would be able to build my dream house. Without wasting time, I had to inform my spouse right away and started planning on the same."

"I hope that the monthly rental payment I will be receiving would provide me with a steady source of income. For a start, I intend to charge each tenant $35, which I think is reasonable. Additionally, no one in the entire village owns a business of this nature, which is good for me as an entrepreneur. I will be in a position to obtain loans from microfinance and construct additional rental properties once my firm begins to thrive. Which will raise my standard of living. My spouse and I will feel a great sense of relief because we barely make enough money to support our three daughters, one in college and the other two in high school. The biggest challenge has been getting them to pay their fees on time, and I've been trying to come up with a permanent solution because it might affect how well they perform. After all, they were typically at home most of the time. Because of GiveDirectly, they can now study peacefully with fewer interruptions than previously. Thus, having a rental property makes the biggest difference in my day-to-day activities."

"Courtesy of previous cash transfers, I obtained two goats that I have managed to keep to date. In the coming few years, I wish to have grown this herd so that it will be easy for me to sell some to support the needs of my family. Currently, I rely on casual tasks such as making charcoal and working on people’s farms for a living. The money I get from these activities barely puts daily bread on the table. I am confident that if I own livestock, hunger will no longer be an issue as I could sell the animals to buy food."