My son recently completed high school, achieving commendable results, although I, being illiterate, cannot fully comprehend the extent of his success. Despite the joy of his accomplishment, I am currently grappling with stress. I aspire to send him to college, but financial constraints weigh heavily on me. The pressing matter of reconstructing our house adds to my challenges. I find myself torn between these two crucial needs, both essential for our family's well-being. As a widow, I lack external support in making these decisions. I can only pray that, with my limited resources, I can make choices in the best interest of my son's education and the family's urgent need for a new shelter, given our current living conditions in the kitchen structure.

As a widow, my reliance on my son, Rajab, a motorcycle rider, has been crucial for meeting the basic needs of our family, including food and school fees for his two younger siblings. Reflecting on the past three months, the cash transfers have significantly eased his burden, enabling me to contribute to our family's needs. I allocated $34 towards purchasing food for Christmas celebrations during the holiday season. Our family had memorable gatherings with delicious meals that brought us closer together. When schools resumed, I spent $15 to cover the school fees for my primary school son and invested $6 in buying him new school uniforms, as he had outgrown his old attire, which was also tattered. Also, I set aside $30 from the funds to acquire building materials for constructing a new house. This decision stemmed from the unfortunate collapse of my previous dwelling due to recent rains, leaving me houseless. I moved into the kitchen structure, where I currently reside. I then used $4 to purchase a hen and revive my flock of chickens, which had succumbed to coccidiosis disease. As the chickens multiply, I plan to sell them to generate funds for the family's needs. The remaining funds were allocated for household expenses, including toiletries and food.

I wish to construct a new house. Since my house collapsed earlier this year following the heavy rains, I have been residing in the kitchen structure. This is not convenient nor is it comfortable for my stay at all. I plan to gradually secure building materials such as iron sheets and building poles through the upcoming cash transfers. Building a new structure would bring me great joy and I hope that I will be able to attain this before the transfer period ends.

Following the long rains at the beginning of the year, my house which was made of mud walls collapsed. My desire to rebuild was hampered by financial constraints, especially related to school fees and food. Am grateful because the same rains made farming possible and I was able to harvest food from my farm. Due to the availability of food, the financial constraints started to ease,  and I saw an opportunity to invest in rebuilding my house. I allocated $30 to purchase three iron sheets. Also, there were outstanding school debts for my two children totaling $60. I directed the funds towards clearing these debts and am happy my boys stayed in school throughout. The remaining $12 went towards purchasing household stuff like toiletries. Being a widow I rely on making and selling donuts, as well as producing charcoal to provide for my two children. The cash transfers have alleviated a big portion of the hardships my household faced in terms of supporting the education of my sons.

I want my children to get an education. I am a widow that means I do not have someone to share the burdens of childcare with. I used to make local food items and pastries and sell to locals but I couldn't make enough to take care of my children. I decided to go and seek out work as a house help in town so I can get some more cash than I was making with the business. I now earn around $40 monthly but this is still not sufficient for needs. My son in secondary school lives on his own which increases the expenses that he uses to get by for instance he pays rent of $3 monthly for the house he stays to access school. I can cover rent but school fees is still a big burden. My plan is to educate my children through this cash as it provides the relief to paying for education.

I have two school going children whose responsibility solely lies with me. I also have another son who is older and has a family and lives within the homestead and since we cook together I also take care of buying food periodically while he also does the same. Every month I spend $10 to buy food since most of the food we consume we buy as we have not yet had our harvest due to the drought that was previously prevailing. I also used $20 monthly to settle school fees for my soon in secondary school while my younger child in primary school gets $4 monthly for school fees as their school fees is much less than that of the older brother.

It has been quite difficult for me to pay for my two school-going children's fees since I am a widow. As a result, when the year began, I set a goal of concentrating on paying school fees for my two sons. I intend to keep focusing on that main objective until my sons achieve their academic pursuits. After that, I will consider raising livestock; goats and cows. I equally value livestock because they are of great benefits even to our surrounding community.

I am a mother of four children and the sole breadwinner for a family of six members. However, I resorted to running a small business to support my family since I am a widow. The business revenues are always low to pay off my son's school fees. When I received my most recent transfer, I prioritized spending $20 on paying school fees for my son, Kazungu. He is currently in form four. I also spent $10 on paying fees for my younger son. He is in grade five. The rest of the transfer helped me to buy two packets of maize flour. I have been able to pay fees for my children on time courtesy of the monthly transfers. Without GiveDirectly's transfers, my two sons would have dropped out of school.

Since my husband's died, I have been the sole breadwinner in our five-person family. To help support my children, I run a small food kiosk that earns about $2 per day. Because of the increase in food prices, our income is insufficient to meet our food needs. As a result, I am constantly concerned about how to raise my children's school fees. I spent $20 on school fees for my son Kazungu, who is in high school, as soon as I received my transfer. He had massive fee arrears, and I was on the verge of giving up before GiveDirectly enrolled me in the program. I also paid $4 for his primary school-aged brother, Rajab. Because I did not have food due to famine, I spent $6 on food.

This organisation is doing an amazing job especially since I can now keep my kids in school. My eldest son finished his primary education and was unable to join high-school due to lack of finances so he dropped out. Before knowing GiveDirectly I was scared history would repeat itself and his siblings would have had to drop out as well but luckily through the funds I can keep them I'm school.

My son just recently resumed school after being on holiday for over a month and since schools were now open he needed school fees. I gave him KES 1,000 so that he could pay a part of his schools and so that the school would atleast allow him on the premises and in class. I am still left to pay KES 18,000 in school fees but I plan on paying in installments since I doubt I will ever have all that cash at once. Then I plan on using KES 1,000 to buy chicks because I want to consider being involved in the business of poultry farming so as to cater for the needs of my family. Lastly I will use the balance of KES 1,000 to cater fit nourishment for my family and I since that has been challenging time to time.

I had received the transfer the previous night before I came to learn that I had received the transfer. Since I'm illiterate, I couldn't read the cash transfers message and when my son came back home from his daily hustle, he told me that he had received his transfers and took my phone to check if I had received mine. He confirmed to me that I had received and I was so happy that I was going to buy my son school uniform something which had kept me worried for a long time as he wouldn't have been allowed in school with non-school uniform.

Although the change is not very significant, I'm happy that we been able to have three meals per day for two without much struggling.

Being a window and raising three of my children through hawking food has not been easy. I earn an average profit of KES 70 per day and this amount wouldn't have managed to pay high school fees and therefore, my older son had to drop out of school after graduating from primary school and became a motorcycle taxi rider to earn living. He has been assisting me with raising two of his siblings out of KES 300 daily commission which he earns from his job. My second born managed to go to high school through his brother's support and we have been pushing all together. I spend KES 500 to buy my last born child school uniform to replace the torn one which he had and the balance to buy five packets of maize floor and some few groceries. This has at least lasted us for two weeks and I'm grateful for the support.