My main goal is to start a kiosk business that I will run from home. With a business, I believe that the stream of income will be consistent, making it easier to fund my three children's education. Since their mother passed away, the responsibility of taking care of them has solely fallen on me. I always want to ensure that their needs are catered for even in her absence. So, I would be happy if I could start the business before the year ends. I anticipate that the initial stock will require at least $100. Right now, I am focusing on farming because the long rains have started. However, once the farming season is over, I plan to start saving for the shop.

When my wife passed away in 2013, she left me with three school-going children to take care of. To provide for them, I rely on casual work such as making charcoal. The little I earn from this endeavor is barely enough to put daily meals on the table. Therefore, the transfers I receive have been a lifeline, ensuring that I can cover my children's school fees. So, there was a $65 debt at school for the kids, so I prioritized settling the balance to ensure they could continue their studies without interruptions. I am happy that they closed the school term without any debts to carry forward to the next term. Now, my only concern is how I will pay for their fees when the time comes. I also contributed $19 towards a merry-go-round club. In the next two months, it will be my turn to receive the lump sum amount, which I plan to use to buy goats. Rearing livestock will be useful, especially during emergencies such as school fees. I spent the remaining funds,$18, to buy food, ensuring that my children never went to bed hungry as I continued to raise more money through the charcoal exercise.

My goal is to open a small shop in my village that provides essential items like sugar, flour, and other household goods to meet the daily needs of the community. To achieve this, I plan to set aside a portion of the received transfers each month. The promise of a plentiful harvest, facilitated by the ongoing rains, adds to the drive behind this plan, ensuring sufficient food for the coming months. The shop's establishment is not just about meeting community needs; it also serves as a way to secure a consistent income to support my family. The thought of taking care of my family in this manner brings me a deep sense of joy.

After the sudden death of my wife, I found myself solely responsible for taking care of our six children. This journey has been challenging, as I resorted to removing tree stumps and selling charcoal to make a living. Thanks to GiveDirectly's transfers, I have been able to purchase food for my children and transition away from the laborious task of clearing tree stumps. Presently, I engage in farming and land cultivation for sustenance, reassured by the ongoing rains that ensure food security. Utilizing $30 from the received transfers, I settled a lingering school fee debt, ensuring my children could sit their end-of-term examinations. Additionally, $38 was allocated to purchase food and essential items that were running low. The remaining $34 was wisely invested in a goat, as I no longer had immediate school fee obligations. This investment offers a potential source of income when the need arises. I am grateful that these resources enable me to meet my family's needs, and I am forever indebted to GiveDirectly for their support.

Establishing a kiosk business is proving to be a challenging endeavor for me due to limited finances. However, I am determined to make it work as I see it as a potential source of income to support my children's education. Also, I would like to revive my carpentry business. I faced a setback in my carpentry adventure years ago when a fire destroyed my equipment back in 1997. I hope to find a way to revive this venture in the future, as it could be another avenue to generate income for my family's needs, including my children's education. My ultimate goal is to ensure that my children have access to quality education and a bright future, even in the face of financial challenges.

My primary source of income has been charcoal burning, but I temporarily paused it to focus on farming during the ongoing rainy season. Both school fees and food have been major challenges for my family, but I am grateful for the cash transfers as they have alleviated much of the financial pressure. In July, I used the cash transfers to address the school fee debt for my three children, which amounted to $7 in total. I prioritized settling this debt to ensure my children's education was not interrupted. With the remaining money, I purchased more food. In June, I invested in buying a turkey for $25, as I admired their potential for breeding and higher selling price compared to other poultry. I see this as a valuable opportunity to grow my wealth and create a sustainable income source. In May, I used a portion of the cash transfer, $15, to settle a debt from the previous term at school. The rest of the money was spent on purchasing food for my family. Thanks to the transfers, once impossible things are now achievable, even simple pleasures like drinking tea in the morning with sugar.

I have always wanted to own a kiosk business where I sell vegetables and fast-moving goods to the people in my community. However, my major hindrance is the lack of necessary funds to establish this venture. The money I earn from charcoal making and the monthly cash transfers are usually consumed by food and education needs, such that am left with nothing to save. Operating this business will increase my income which will support the education of my three children. Besides, bringing this shop to my locality will avail commodities and save my community members the time and energy of walking for hours to the trade center. 

By the time I received the money, I was in debt of at least $12 at the store where I had been acquiring food on credit for the past week. I always do this when I run out of cash for food. Given that I make charcoal for a living, my scant earnings hardly cover food costs for the entire month, let alone pay school fees for my three children. It is incredible how the shopkeeper is always generous to me. I prioritized repaying the debt and bought more food worth $15 to boost the little that was left in the house. Finally, I spent $7 to clear a tuition debt for my children who had been pulled out of school that morning to collect the amount. It relieves me that they have peacefully remained in class ever since that day. 

I want to launch a poultry business throughout this year. I currently rely on farming, but it has been difficult because of the severe drought. Due to a lack of rain, all of the crops we planted last year dried up, causing us to suffer significant losses. I want to start a poultry project where I can make money by selling chicken at the market. As a result, I won't have to worry as much about feeding my family. In addition, I want to help my kids learn and keep them from being sent home a lot by paying school fees for my 3 children.

Nine years ago, my wife passed away. We had six children at the time, the youngest of whom was just three months old. Four of them are currently enrolled in school, while two of them are adults. I've been reliant on farming and occasionally selling charcoal to make money for a while. Eight bags of maize, each carrying 50 kg, could usually be harvested in most seasons, providing us with enough food and even making some money. This was primarily caused by adequate rainfall. I currently get barely a bag of maize because of the drought that has troubled us for the past three years and hampered the harvest. This has had an impact on our household income and made it tough for me to support my children. I liked the notion of receiving monthly assistance from Give Directly, and ever since I began receiving the transfers, I have set aside $10 each month to cover my kids' tuition. I used $36 of the transfers over the past three months to pay the arrears they owed the school. I'm glad I was able to pay off the entire year's worth of overdue school fees. They were able to regularly attend their lessons as a result, and I have noticed an improvement in their academic performance. I owed the local shopkeeper $10, which I paid when I recently received the transfer. I spent $40 on food for my family members, but I still have $8 set aside for our household's daily needs.

For the past three months, I have paid KES 1800 in school monthly for my three children's school fees. They owed the school a huge fee balance, and I am glad I have reduced a bigger portion. At the moment they only owe the school KES 2500 which I am hoping to clear within two months. The remaining KES 1200 I have been spending on foodstuffs for my family. It would have never been easy without the support from GiveDirectly. My spouse passed on a year ago leaving me as the sole breadwinner. Cutting logs of wood for burning charcoal at the age of 60 is not a walk in the park. Unfortunately, it has been my main source of income for years, but I am glad about the additional income. I am great full to the organization for the support.

In the area I come from, most people do not own land. We only live as squatters. From the few that I have interacted with, including myself, we have a desire to purchase land. The funds that we get from give directly are not enough to pay at once but in installments. So, if there's a possibility for the organization to give an allowance where one can get the funds in bulk, this will really help. It has however done very well especially when it comes to food provision and also boosting my finances

I used KES 1,380 to pay for a debt I took at a shop where I normally buy food and KES 620, which I used to purchase some food. I am yet to use the remaining KES 1000 as I am waiting for the children to reopen school and pay part of their fees. After the Demise of my wife in 2013, I was left with five children to take care of. The youngest was only 3 months. With my work as a charcoal manufacturer, I did my best to ensure that their needs are well taken care of. When my last born turned one, my late wife's sister asked if she could help me raise him. I agreed because there he will be in great hands as I'm normally busy working. Even though he stays with her, I ensure that I get to provide for him. With an earning of KES 1,200, it has been hard meeting most of my bills. So, I find myself often running into debt.

When it comes to my profession, I burn charcoal for a living so that I can manage to provide for children which is my biggest priority ever since there mother passed away some few years back. So that morning I was busy in the forest trying to get the trees for the coal when I received the message that the money came through. I was overwhelmed with extreme joy because before that, I knew my kids would fail to sit for their exams since I had no money and I was honestly disappointed in myself but GiveDirectly immediately wiped the sorrow away when I realised I had received that money.

Keeping my kids in school was one of my biggest challenges especially since I had to prioritise on the basic needs they would require the most with the little money I manage to earn and most times I would pick nutrition over the rest and they would end staying for weeks. Fortunately though there has a complete turn of events, and honestly for the better because now with the funds I receive I can be able to also concentrate on their education.

After receiving the transfers I went ahead and paid a debt in examination fee that I owed the school for three of my children because it was either I pay or they did not get to sit for the exams and therfore I paid KES 450 to the school administration and the children finally sat for their exams. Apart from that I alsobought two hens since I had developed an interest in poultrt farming which woud be beneeficial in the long run. Then the remaining KES 300 I used it to putchase two packets of maize flour so that we would at least have a meal in the house.