My spending in January looks like my typical spending on most school months. I have five children who are all school going, One is in form one while the rest are in primary school. I am not involved in any money making venture, My husband on the other hand moved to the city started a hawking business which we all depend on. This cash transfers have saved us when it come to our children's education which is not little since the number of children in school is large and now we have a child in high school which is very expensive. I hope to direct all my transfers to continue education my children so that I can look back later in life and say that the education of my children was facilitated by Givedirectly.

In November I had already started preparing for the festivities for the children, I bough clothes for my two boys which took $15 each, a pant and a sweater. My daughters got their clothes in December I got some fabric at $20 and then paid a tailor $10 to make their clothes. The money I was left with in November 4, went into buying soap at $2 and sugar at $2. In December I bought a chicken with the $4. January my oldest who was joining form one spent the big portion of my transfer. I got her uniform at $18 and shoes at $3. I paid school fees for one of my younger ones at $8 and bought them books at $5.

My long-term goal is to have more goats that we can sell later on to raise school fees for our children when they join highschool. Goats reproduce very fast and require very minimal care hence are the best investment. My husband and I do not have stable income and failure to plan ahead may result in our children not proceeding to highschool due to lack of money to pay their fees. This is why I have decided to invest in goats that are affordable and can be purchased with a month's transfer. With the next few transfers however, I intend to clear my children's school fees so that they can finish the year without any balances to make next year easier and manageable. The intention is to keep them in school fully so that their learning is not affected or derailed. I also intend to purchase better clothing for the children and improve their sleeping conditions by purchasing a new mattress for them.

The transfers received in the past few months have supported me in taking care of different dimensions of family needs such as school requirements for my 5 children, farming and investments. I am glad that all my 5 children have consistently been in school as none of them was sent out of school for delayed fee payments. This is thanks to the transfers that have been helping in clearing the balances or aiding in the purchase of the required school items such as books and uniforms. They are in a public school but are usually required to pay a little amount each term which was previously not easy to raise due to my family's low income. This often resulted in them being sent out of school often and missing several lessons which would then result in poor performance. The transfers also helped during the farming season that we just concluded by helping me hire a tractor, purchase quality seeds and even hire labour to assist with the farm work. It was also very helpful in transporting home my harvest as my farm is miles away from home. After completing the harvest and clearing my children's fees for the term, I was able to invest some of the money by buying a goat as a future investment. Goats thrive in this area and can easily be disposed when one is in urgent need of money hence the reason I settled on the idea of rearing them.

My goal is to first harvest the crops I planted and this will mean my family gets food and I may just end up with some surplus that I can sell for gain. I also aim on adding afew more animals such as chicken and goats and this is because I want to have something to remember this project by. I want that once the 5 years are done I can still see the proceeds from this transfers and animals stand as the best memorabilia to have and also they will earn me some money as they reproduce.

I was a stay at home wife until recently. I have not had a job and my husband in the city has been the main breadwinner. He hawks commodities in the main bus stages. I recently started farming due to the rains as we had had a long drought. Givedirectly transfer has facilitated my ability to farm. I used $20 of my March transfers to hire a tractor to help till the land and in May I hired a number of people using $24 to ensure I could weed the farm. I planted some maize, beans and green grams and spent $10 to buy the seeds for this in March. I have been able to also buy some sanitation items using the transfers in March and April for me and my family. In may I got two hens for $6 with additional $2 from my savings and I unfortunately lost on of them during the last wave of chicken disease that hit.

My husband is a hawker in Mombasa who makes and sells soap to his clients. Sometimes he makes profit and at times he sells nothing. I want to start my own business where I can sell vegetables and at least make a huge profit and help my husband out in meeting our day to day expenses. I am confident that I will generate a profit of at least $2 so that I will be able to save enough money. People are barely making it through this drought and some are dying because of lack of anything to eat and drink. I will also want to at least help out in curbing the hunger issue by selling to my locals at afford prices.

I am a mother of 5 children and the moment I received my transfers, I went and bought school uniform for my children. I spent $15 on uniforms for my 3 children, the remaining 2 children I had budgeted and bought for them uniform with the transfers I received last November. I paid their tuition with $15 and with the remaining $ 4 I bought food for my entire family. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for it all. My entire family depends on the money I receive from GiveDirectly because my spouse does not have a steady source of income.

The coming of GiveDirectly to our village was like a godsend. Many lives are gradually transforming courtesy of GiveDirectly’s monthly transfers. Being converged into merry-go-round groups and advising us on how to spend the money have brought unity and peaceful co-existence in the village. I have, however, not seen any area of weakness and still thank GiveDirectly for considering me for their cash transfer program.

I am a mother of five working as a subsistence farmer for survival. I also raise cattle while my husband is a hawker. My husband is the sole breadwinner of the family and also the one who pays school fees for our five kids. I received the transfer when I had no money to buy food or take my son who was feeling unwell to the hospital. I spent my transfers to buy food worth KES 650, pay for my son's medication, and buy a sheep worth KES 2000 for investment. Taking my son to the hospital on time enabled him to get proper medical care making him regain good health. Besides, we also enjoyed balanced diets through the foods I bought using the transfers that helped improve our health. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the timely financial support.

I was out running the usual household chores when my son came running holding the phone. Upon checking it, there was a message notification and since I do not know how to read it, he opened the message. From the smile on his face, I could tell that it was good news. That was when he informed me that I had received the cash transfer. It was such a happy moment, and I was so delighted.

The biggest difference in my daily life is the joy of having been able to rescue my child’s life. The money was of great help because he was unwell and his condition kept worsening, but we had no money for his medication. I had called my spouse who promised to send us some money in case he was lucky but it seems luck was not on his side. He has a small business in town but it does not do well of late and thus we strain to meet our household needs. I am so grateful for the support because I am not sure how the condition would have been had it not been for the money.

Due to the prolonged drought, we have not been getting adequate harvests to sustain us. In most cases, we budget for foodstuff for the better part of the year which has been a challenge due to our low income. My spouse hawks utensils in Mombasa town but the much he makes can not sustain our family of ten. We thank God that GiveDirectly came to our rescue. With the first transfer, I bought foodstuffs for the family worth KES 950 because we had run out of food. KES 200 I spent in the hospital for my son's medication who was unwell at that time.