As a fish monger, my biggest aspiration this year is to enroll in college. The course I am aiming for is electrical installation, which spans two years. I am actively saving towards this goal, and I have also discussed it with my dad, who has promised to assist in taking care of half of my school fees. Looking ahead, I believe completing this education will not only enhance my career prospects but also improve my standard of living. It's a step towards securing a stable job that will enable me to better provide for my family's needs.

Last year, I began saving with a clear goal in mind: to pursue studies in electrical installation at college in Kilifi. I firmly believe that every dollar saved brings me one step closer to achieving this ambition. Each month, I set aside $15 from my income towards this goal. Over the past three months, I have managed to save $45 in my account. With the remaining $57, I ensured my family had enough food for the entire week. Balancing my aspirations with taking care of my loved ones motivates me to keep moving forward.

I've always longed to attend college; it's been a fervent prayer of mine. I come from a humble family, and financial constraints made even finishing high school a significant challenge. Additionally, being from a family of eight has meant that feeding everyone and providing for basic needs has always been difficult for my parents. Recognizing the need to independently forge ahead, I decided to save $98 towards my college education. With the remaining $4 from my transfer, I purchased a few personal essentials like soap, which we were in need of at the time.

Returning to school is my top priority at the moment. I graduated from high school in 2021 but was unable to pursue further education due to financial constraints. My parents are peasant farmers, and their limited income barely covers our family's basic needs. I am eager to enroll in an orthopedic and trauma management course. To finance my education, I plan to save money from my transfers and any profits I earn from small business endeavors. Achieving this goal is extremely important to me as it not only fulfills my personal aspirations but also gives me a chance to make my parents proud. I am optimistic that with the help of Give Directly, my dream of furthering my education will soon become a reality.

Currently, I have two major goals that I would love to start actioning on very soon. First, I would like to expand my current butchery shop. I am a member of our local merry go round group and it will be my turn to receive some funds( a sum of $150) before the end of this month. I am planning to use these funds to expand my shop as these will lead to an increase in my daily profits. This is because I'll have more customers and my daily sales will increase. I'll be saving my daily proceeds so that by next year May, I will use my profits to achieve my second goal of joining college. I recently applied for a course in orthopaedic and trauma in my dream college and I got a vacancy. I was to join during September in take but due to lack of finances, I had to defer until next year May. I believe that by then, I will have saved a good amount from my transfer and business so that I can use in paying for my school fees.

A poultry project that I had been running at home had been my main source of income aside from doing any available casual work. With the heavy rains that we've been experiencing in my region lately, my poultry coop was destroyed and most of my chickens died. As a result of this, I had to look for an alternative source of income. With the little money that I had, I started a butchery shop at our nearest trading centers. I am glad that GiveDirectly transfers came in handy as it enabled me to boost it. From my recent transfer, I used $68 to purchase more stock, spent $12 in the purchase of four chicks so that my poultry project will not completely collapse and used the remaining $ 22 on clothes and some personal items that I needed.

Returning to school is my top priority right now. I graduated from high school in 2021 but was unable to attend college due to financial constraints. I'd like to take an orthopedic and trauma management course. I plan to pay for my education by saving my transfers and business profits. This will mean a lot to me since I will be able to make my parents proud.

Being unemployed inspired me to start a poultry farm in order to make a living. The business requires little capital to start and is simple to run. I am glad to report that, thanks to Give Directly transfers, I have obtained around 30 hens that I am rearing and want to sell once they reach maturity. I spent $55 on chicken feed and medication because several of them were sick and required emergency treatment. On top of that, I spent $16 on food for my family because we were experiencing a shortage. I saved the remainder of my transfers and plan to use them in the future.

It has been my dream to study Orthopedics and trauma at the college level and when I received my form four results that I had gotten a c- I knew I could pursue this dream. My parents are not very stable financially as my father is a shopkeeper and my mother is a housewife. I knew I could not burden them with the hefty school fees amounts seeing that a number of us are still in school. I decided to start the business to raise cash that I could finally spend in paying my school fees to study at college. I sell the chicken at $7.5 and make a profit of between $3 to $4 once the service charges are removed. I have a steady market for my produce now and I hope to explore this further by increasing my flock. I also see myself at the end of the year having enough savings to start school and I can sustain the school fees from the business as it grows. I will be so happy if I can join college and study Orthopedics and trauma as it's something ever on my mind.

When I cleared my Form four exams I went back home and didn't have anything to do to make some cash. I knew I liked the chicken business but due to a lack of finances, I couldn't venture into it. In 2022 after GD had sent me transfers I felt it was the best time to start this business. In June of 2022, I used my transfers to begin a chicken business with three hens, over time the business grew and I now supply chicken to hotels in the Mariakani area. Now I have 24 chickens left that hatch and this has helped increase the numbers. So monthly I used $10 from my transfers to buy chicken feed and I make savings of $10. This is my standard spending. In January I spent $12 buying flour for my parents who I help from time to time and $2 for my clothes. In February I reduced my brother's college school fees by $15. In March I saved a much larger amount than the previous months as my business has been earning well which is $24.

Last year, I joined a college in Mombasa to pursue Information Technology for the next two years. Although my father has been active in paying my school fees, I plan to actively contribute towards it as well. I understand that he has a huge burden on his shoulders providing for my younger siblings in primary school, and such support will go a long way in relieving some pressure off of him. Hence, for the next two years, I plan on directing $10 and $15 from each transfer towards my school fees and rent respectively.

I finished my secondary education in April 2021. Due to the poverty at home, I was unable to enroll in a college or continue my education at the university. I joined a local college in September of last year and enrolled in a computer course to improve my skills and put myself in a position to find employment. My entire savings went toward paying for the course. I finished the course in its entirety in December of last year, but there was still a $50 school fee balance due before I could receive my certificate. I used the entire amount of my December transfers to cover my outstanding school fee balance. I'm glad that the debt I have is so small, and I intend to pay it off completely by the end of the month so that I can get the certificate that will give me an advantage when applying for jobs.

My brother Shadrack who is currently taking a medicine course at the Kenya Medical Training College has organized for a fund drive to raise the college fee. Since I was among the committee members in the fund drive, I contributed KES 4000 of my transfer for the fund drive. I am glad he was able to raise enough money for his fees and as we speak he is in college pursuing his medical course. When I received the first three months' transfers I invested them in goats for rearing. So far, I have two goats. With the current drought, getting their feed has become a challenge forcing us to buy their feeds. Therefore, I used KES 5000 to purchase the feeds for the goats.

Unlike other NGOs, GiveDirectly does well in giving financial aid to all people above 18years. This lowers criminal cases within the village. In addition, the community members who have been having good goals have been able to use their transfers in pursuit of their goals. They are therefore in a better position to rework their dreams. However, I feel that GiveDirectly does not do well in revisiting the villages it had previously worked at. Consequently, some deserving households are left out of the program and n the basis that they were not around at the time of enrollment.

Ever since I was in high school, my heart has desired to raise my own flock. I have been longing even to have just a single goat. Unfortunately, this could not work out because I did not have any source of income. Immediately after I received my most recent transfer, I spent it on buying two goats. I shall raise them with an aim of selling them by the end of the year to raise some additional money to aid my college education. This will supplement my parent's contribution towards my college fees because they are poor thus they cannot raise the whole fees required. I am glad that this is the very first time I have ever owned a goat.

I felt extremely happy when I realized that I had received my transfer. Honestly I am so grateful to GiveDirectly for this kind of help. On that day, I was at home and I was just resting since I did not have anything I could do. I was with my cousin who had come to pay me a visit. At that moment, I got some conviction that my dream of joining college would soon come to pass.

Prior to being enrolled in the GD program, I had some in-built pressure on how I would raise my college fee. This is due to the fact that my parents are very poor and whatever they do in terms of running their businesses generates insufficient income that cannot take care of my college fee. I am glad that currently the pressure is gone down and I am hopeful that by September 2022, I shall be able to get an admission for the course I have been longing for.

I sat for my KCSE last year, but I have not joined any college yet. I have always been longing to join college soon. However, both my parents have not been able to raise school fees for me. In order to make my dream of advancing in my academics a reality, I am planning to save all my transfers in order to raise some money for my college education. I have a passion to pursue a course on health records. The course will be more relevant and beneficial to me because it shall introduce me to the public health sector.