My husband works as a loader in a maize milling company in Mombasa. He earns around $5 daily. I am a fishmonger as well as grocery seller, I make about $2 a day from this business. This only allows us to cover our basic needs and even at that with a strain, we can only struggle to cover for food and school fees and we do not have the luxury of saving. Givedirectly transfers however changed how things are for us. Now we have an extra amount of money that we can use to take care of needs that the earnings we have cannot. We need about $140 for a lorry of stones and $90 for sand. I am able to see myself achieve the goal of getting this materials to better my families living state thanks to Givedirectly.

I have saved up all the money I have received from Givedirectly over the last three months. I have a goal of buying a lorry load of construction stones as well as a lorry of sand. I want to build a half stone wall for my house as well as pillars to hold the roof. The rainy season has been a tough one for my family. My house is made of mud and their are portions of the walls that the rains has washed up and it means this sections allow water to flow into the house. The only was to prevent this leakages is by creating a stone wall which cannot be washed off by the rain to ensure we do not go through this again.

Currently our house is in a bad state and the rainy season puts it at risk of collapsing. We are in the process of buying bricks and cement to construct a new steadier house. I intend to increase the number of goats. My goal is to later trade some of these goats for male cows. With this, I would rent them out for ploughing and generate an extra income. Ploughing an acre here costs $24, and I would focus on ploughing a total of two acres of land in a day. Lastly, my eldest child is in school and I have allocated a portion of my earnings towards saving for his education, and in addition to this ensure that all our other basic needs are met.

I spent $25.5 to acquire three chairs for my home, each priced at $8.5. For over seven years, my family and I endured the discomfort of using jerricans and a locally made wooden bench. This became increasingly uncomfortable and even embarrassing, especially when hosting visitors. At times, we resorted to renting chairs for special guests, which proved to be expensive and unsustainable. The cost of these rented chairs could rise based on the number of guests we had. Now, I am thrilled to share that our living conditions have improved with the addition of comfortable seating in our home, benefiting both my two children and I. The transformative impact of GiveDirectly has filled us with joy, we'll carry fond memories of the transfers throughout our years. Furthermore, I allocated $5 to savings and utilized the remaining $3.5 to enhance my small business. As my husband's employment as a casual laborer lacks stability, the proceeds from my business contribute to our food and other essential needs in the household.

My aim for the year is to build a safety net for my family through the savings I am making with my savings group. I joined the group after GD transfers and most months I try to save as much as I can from my transfers to ensure that I will have something for a rainy day. I am also trying to add more animals to my flock so that they also grow giving us a chance as a family to decide to sell the animals where there is a need.

GD transfers have given me back the power of choice when it comes to my spending and even building a cushion for myself. I am a mother of one who runs a roadside grocery stall where I sell local groceries as well as dried fish. I accumulated my January and February transfers and spent it in the month of February on a few things I had thought about earlier. I used $15 to add to my grocery business which at the time was going through a rough patch. I also bought a goat at $38 as well as send $15 to my local savings group that I joined. I added $30 in February to my savings group. I bought sugar as well as paid school fees of $4.2 for my child.

This program has brought quite a significant change into my life and I am honestly going to be forever grateful. Through the funds I was finally able to build myself quite a comfortable house which I am proud of, especially since it had been a long dream of mine to finally build a better home for myself and my family. Now that I am done with the house I plan on investing in buying a couple of goats and poultry since they are quite cheaper compared to cows. I also happen to own a business where I sell 13th and groceries at one of my friends' stalls. I will also use some part of the money to ensure that I keep my business afloat.

Because my husband could not afford to build a home, I had been living with my mother-in-law ever since we got married. He works as a casual at one of the businesses where he is employed. He doesn't make much money, but I am thankful that he was able to save a bit and start a modest business for me. We had been living in his mother's house who provided us with everything, even the bedding, ever since we got married. I was excited when we were accepted into the program because I knew it was the start of my independence. Due to the transfers, we currently own a house. I spent $50 for a 5 by 6 mattress and utilized $48 to grow my business with the last three months' transfers. I'm pleased and proud of the significant advancements I've made thanks to the transfers. In addition to having a home with all the necessities, my business has expanded and I now make more than $2 in profits every day as opposed to the less than $1 I used to.

We have not built a house at home since I got married. Even though I now have two children, we always sleep at my mother-in-law's house because my husband is based in Mombasa and rarely returns home. When I received my second transfer, I decided to top up our finances so that we could build a new house. I am relieved that, with the help of my husband, we were able to construct a two-bedroom house with a large veranda. Having a house is the best gift I have received this year, and at long last, I have begun to appreciate my privacy as a woman.

Our village is transforming since GiveDirectly came in. Those who did not have houses have started the construction process while some have invested their money in business while others spent on food. I would not have raised money for the construction labor had it not been for the transfers. We are happy and thankful that the support came right when we needed it the most and allowed us to spend on all we had been wishing to accomplish. Nothing was done contrary to our expectations, a reason behind everyone's happiness.

We got married six years ago but since then we have not been able to raise enough money for constructing our house. Instead, I have been staying in my mother-in-law's house. My spouse is a casual laborer in town (offloads luggage from trucks). He has been purchasing building materials in bits and what we lack currently is the construction labor which is totaling to KES 16000. I had saved KES 5000 from my small fish business for this. When I received both the second and first transfers, I added them to the savings for the construction labor. I am glad I am yet to start the construction since I already have KES 11000 saved for it. I can not wait to own a house and have my freedom and a feeling of independence.

I was washing clothes when I heard a message notification from my phone and thought to myself, that must be the usual promotional messages. After I was done washing, I picked my phone and saw a cash transfer pop-up and because I wasn't expecting money from anyone, I was eager to open the message only to find out that it was the transfers from GiveDirectly. That was such a good was to start off my day since it was early in the morning.

Right now, I have peace of mind knowing that in the next few months, I will have a house to call mine and the father of my children will nolonger shy from coming home oftenly. This will be a great opportunity for him to bond with the children.

Ever since I was married, I have been living in my father In-law's house because my husband don't have a house. When he married me, he promised to build a house as soon as possible but things didn't go as planned because we got our first born earlier than we thought. My husband lives in the city while I live in his rural home with our two daughters therefore, he rarely comes home and when he does, he cannot spend a night here because he doesn't have a house. This has denied our daughters bonding with him because they get to see him once in a while. Overtime, he has worked so hard and managed to buy enough building materials to construct a two bedroom house but we couldn't afford to pay the mason. When I was enrolled into the program, we both agreed to be savings the monthly transfers so that we can raise enough money to pay the mason. I saved KES 1200 that I received and I'm looking forward to save the subsequent monthly transfers of KES 3000 until I accumulated enough money to pay the mason and I believe this will be possible in the next seven months.