The main goal that we currently have as a family is to build a more spacious and permanent house for my family and to pay school fees for our three children, one being in secondary and the other being in grade four and one. Aside from the support that I will be getting from my spouse, I will be dividing the money I get from the two groups that I am in so that I can pay school fees for the children as well as buy some building materials. The house we currently live in is small and in a bad condition as it is almost falling due to heavy rains that we sometimes experience. Despite doing repairs most of the time, it's still not save for us to continue living in it. Without the financial support from GiveDirectly, it will take us longer time to achieve the goal of building a permanent house that we will no longer have to worry about the heavy rains anymore. This is because my spouse will have to shoulder more burden as he will be the only sole provider for our family.

There's a savings group and a merry go round group that we started as GiveDirectly beneficiaries and some non beneficiaries in our village. With the savings group, we save for a year, dissolve and share the savings as per everyone's shares or contributions. We do not have a fixed amount since not all the members are GiveDirectly beneficiaries. On the other hand, the merry go round group contribution amount is fixed since everyone is a beneficiary. So far, I have saved $ 104 in the two groups. I am planning to later use these savings to buy some building materials and pay school fees for my children. Aside from this, I used $ 7 to pay school fees for my children, sent $ 9 to my son who is in secondary school and living in a rental house since he is studying in a place far from home. This was in order for him to get himself what he needed in terms of food and other necessities. Using the remaining $ 12, I bought some food items for my family.

Now I have a clear plan and two main goals: first, to build a new house, and second, to keep paying for my eldest son's school fees. Our current house, where we have lived for 13 years, is getting old, and the constant rain has washed off part of its mud walls hence making it it unsafe to live in. So, I want to build a safer and more stable house for my family. I will prioritize this because I am afraid that if we continue to live in the same house for the next one year, it can collapse and cause injury to my family.

In order to secure a better future for my family, I have developed a disciplined savings routine. Each time I receive a transfer, I make it a priority to allocate $20 towards my savings. I am an active participant in a saving group that I joined with the specific goal of accumulating enough funds to cover my first born son's school fees when he joins Form One next year. The remaining portion, $14 usually helps me to purchase food, thereby supplementing our household supplies. This financial assistance has proven to be invaluable for my family, which consists of six members. With the combination of diligent savings and responsible spending, I no longer struggle as I used to before my enrollment in the program.

In the upcoming year and beyond, my primary goal is to effectively restore my mud house. With each heavy rainfall, the mud walls tend to crumble, leading to substantial repair expenses. I intend to substitute the mud walls with stonework to enhance the house's longevity and stability. Additionally, alongside the house repairs, I aspire to increase my savings to support my son's education as he enters secondary school next year. This effort will ensure a seamless transition for him to pursue his education with ease.

I work as a peasant farmer, while my husband is employed at a car wash. We are responsible for supporting our four children. To achieve our goals and undertake substantial projects, we established a savings group comprising 12 members, each contributing $20 monthly. The pooled amount is then evenly divided between two members every month. I've received my share twice, accumulating $200 to fund my son's upcoming secondary school fees next year. In addition to my savings group contributions, I managed to repay a $4 loan I had taken to purchase food when I was short on cash to prevent my family from going hungry. As schools prepare to reopen for the new term, I allocated $5 to my son for his transportation expenses since his school is quite a distance from our village. Furthermore, I purchased sugar and some breakfast items for my family. The financial assistance from Give Directly has been instrumental in helping me work toward my goals, and I am sincerely grateful for it.

This year I have a big goal that I have had for years. My family now lives in a two-roomed mud house with very old leaking sheets of iron. It's usually very uncomfortable in the rainy season because the roof leaks and makes it impossible for me and my children to sleep. I want to change all this. I have started building a stone house for my family. It is a four-roomed house that will have a toilet attached to it. The project is quite pricey but through my savings, I believe I will be able to do a big portion of the project using these transfers. I also hope to get my child to form one as she joins in next year through this savings.

I am so grateful for GD transfers as they have brought a great change in my life. I have been able to provide food for my family and even pay school fees for my child through these transfers. I have also joined a merry-go-round savings group that has allowed me to save towards my family's goals. In January I bought food worth $14 for the family and saved $20 for my local savings group. My February transfer helped me reduce the school fees balance by $7 and saved an equal amount of $20 for my merry-go-round, I also bought two bags of maize flour and vegetables at $5 and some sanitary items at $2. The March transfers allowed me to buy two hens at $2.5 each and further reduce my child's school fees by $5, I also made my family wheat bread locally known as 'chapati" for my children so they would enjoy something special for once and this cost me $5. I still saved $20 towards my goal through my group.

Prior to being introduced to Givedirectly I had prayed and hoped that if I ever got enough money I would renovate my house. The reason behind this was because at the moment my house was made from mud and I had wanted to make a more permanent one using bricks. Also my iron sheets were quite old and worn-out and occasionally during the rainy season the entire house would be left drenched due to all the holes on the roof. Therefore, my plan is to ensure I buy all the building equipment using the money that I received because I have been gradually stocking up bricks with the donations that have been sent so far. I will also ensure that I use the money to keep my children in school by settling their debts in tuition.

When I received the transfers I decided to deposit KES 2,000 into my savings committee like I as routine each time received the transfers. This is because I had the intentions to let the money accumulate so that I would eventually have enough to build a bigger home for me and my family. Apart from that, my house was a mud house and I wanted to renovate it by building a brick house and create enough room for me and my children. Afterwards I remained with a balance of KES 1,400 which I decided to spend it on nourishment by purchasing half a dozen packets of maize flour because hunger was a recurring challenge.

Upon receiving my transfer, I spent KES 3000 on foodstuffs for our family. We formed a savings group where we save 2000 every month and share out at the end of the year. My transfer came in handy in paying my shares on time, and I am planning to later use it to construct a permanent house when I receive it at the end of the year. I have already bought bricks and other materials and the only pending items are sand and labor. The current one is a mud house that consumes much time and resources to renovate every time we do renovations.

GiveDirectly has continued to uplift lives and help people in the lesser communities without discriminating. All the help they give is surely a welcome relief and we appreciate a lot.

The KES 3000 received from GiveDirectly brought much relief, since I have been living in a not so well conditioned house as it was on the verge of collapsing. I was able to spare KES 2000 which I saved in my local Chama account that I will use to start the construction works of the house. Food in the house was almost over and with the remaining KES 1000, I bought enough food to last us two weeks thus we do not sleep hungry. The funds were a welcome relief since I do not have a job and I spend my days undertaking housewife duties. My husband works at a carwash and the income he makes at times is not sufficient to take care of our four children. GiveDirectly has truly been a life saver and I am truly grateful.

It was only 3 days after I had put to bed a bouncing baby boy. My mother-in-law had just served me some breakfast. In my head, I was unsettled since all I was thinking of was when my husband would send me funds to buy the baby some clothes. All I had were some baby wraps that I had been using since I gave birth. This, I feared, could cause him to get sick as they were not warm enough. So, when I received the funds, I was ecstatic. Immediately, I sent a motorcyclist to purchase some clothes from a shop I directed him to.

I was only a housewife before I started receiving these funds. For this reason, I would solely depend on my husband, who earns very little from the carwash he works in. It was a challenge to meet most of our needs. Apart from this, we live in a mud house that would be damaged every time it rains and often, I am afraid it could collapse. So, when I started receiving the funds, I was able to purchase some sugar and buy my newborn son some clothes as he only had a pair. I also have plans to upgrade my house from a mud house to a stone house which will cost me roughly KES 100000. Therefore, I am planning to start saving for it.

My husband works in Mombasa at a car wash. His pay is normally on commission. In a week, he would often send me between KES 200 to KES 500. This I would use to manage my needs and that of our three children. However, this was not enough, so it was very hard to start planning early for the baby I was almost put to bed. When I was due, I only had 1 pair of clothes and some baby wraps. The KES 1000 I had I used for my transport (to and from the hospital). Three days later, is when I received my transfer from give directly. Therefore, I used KES 900 to buy the baby some clothes. I used the remaining amount to buy some sugar that I would use in my tea.