Currently, when college is not in session, I sleep at my brother's house. Now that I'm receiving a monthly transfer from GiveDirectly, I can save money and purchase building materials to eventually construct my own house. With my most recent transfers, I allocated $60 each month to our merry-go-round savings group to achieve this goal. This will help me accumulate enough funds to meet my house-building budget. Additionally, I spent $30 to buy three iron sheets, and the remaining $12 went towards personal items such as airtime and other necessities. I am grateful for the financial support.

I want to express my deep appreciation to GiveDirectly for their financial support. It has greatly helped me become more self-reliant while I am still in college. For the coming year and beyond, I plan to save $20 from each transfer to achieve my goal. I currently do not have a house and sleep at my brother's place, but I know that soon he will want to marry and will need his space. Therefore, I'm setting aside $20 each month to save up for building my house, and I am very optimistic about achieving this goal. Once I accomplish this, I want to start investing in goats. This is a good initiative because goats multiply very quickly and are highly marketable. If they increase to a substantial number, I can sell some to address any financial challenges that may arise.

I come from a humble background, so after finishing primary school, I have to work hard to help support my parents. My parents are farmers, but sometimes they also do other jobs to earn money for our basic needs. We really depend on this money. Life was tough before Give Directly because we often had to skip meals and sometimes went to bed hungry. But now, things are better. Nowadays, I plan well and ensure we have enough food for family consumption. My mother and I sit down and plan how to use our monthly transfers wisely. With my recent transfer, I spent $20 on food to make sure we had enough. I also bought two chickens for domestic rearing and saved $60 for future financial crises. I'm happy I could buy some clothes for $10 and still have $7 left for buying airtime. I'm really grateful to Give Directly for helping us improve our lives.

When I'm back home from School, I sleep at my older brother's place who lives in Mombasa. I really want to have my own house because soon my brother will need his own space when he gets married, or when he returns from the city. I don't want to bother him then. It would be embarrassing to have to find somewhere else to sleep in my neighborhood. So, my goal for the next year and beyond is to build my own house. To make this happen, I got two goats to raise. Goats breed quickly, so I believe they'll help me get building materials by selling some of their offspring. Additionally, every month, I'm setting aside $20 to save up for building my house. I'm very optimistic about achieving this goal.

Currently, I am in my first year, pursuing a teaching course at Shanzu Teacher's College in Mombasa. My father who is employed in town shoulders the responsibility of supporting me in paying school fees, while my mother takes on the role of a housewife. With a total of nine siblings, three have successfully completed their education, while the others are still in primary school. The intervention of GiveDirectly has been instrumental in alleviating our past struggles with acquiring school fees and securing sufficient food. Out of the received transfers, I wisely saved $60 in a local savings group intending to utilize it for constructing my own house, given that I currently live in my brother's home. The remaining $42 was spent on purchasing clothing and other personal items that I needed. The impact of GiveDirectly on my life has been profound, and I express sincere gratitude for the invaluable support provided

Looking ahead to the coming year, my goal is to realize the dream of having my own house, considering that I am currently living in my brother's place. I am pleased to report that I have already started saving towards this endeavor, aiming to begin construction sometime this year. In pursuit of this objective, I plan to utilize both my savings and financial support from my parents. The prospect of having my own home fills me with a profound sense of accomplishment, and I eagerly anticipate a prosperous new year.

I am the eldest in my family with my parents engaged in casual labour. Being that we are 8 of us in school and with two of us being in college. I had to find a way of raising money to join college. I am currently enrolled as a student at a local teachers college in the coastal region of Kenya. When I Joined school in August my fiances were not sufficient. I took out money from my informal savings group where I had saved $20 monthly including in July to ensure I could join school. I also used $15 from my August transfers to do some shopping and also kept $19 as my pocket money. This month I received my transfer which I hope to put in my savings group to use later.

I had been saving in my informal savings group with the goal of building my own house. I have now been set back a bit due to joining school. I still have the goal of building a house and I aim to achieve this by continuing to save in my savings group and buying goats that will reproduce and I can actually sell to get money to actualize this dream. This is because I still live with my siblings and since I may want to start a family I would want a home of my own.

I sat for my KCSE last year. However, I did not complete paying my school fees. I still have fee arrears of $20. As a result, I could not pick up my O'level certificate. So I had to pay off the arrears to be allowed to pick up my certificate. I am glad I have already picked them. Because we have been struggling to obtain food, I contributed $10 towards food purchases. We are a large family of 12 members, although my parents strain a lot to sustain the family. My father does home-based jobs in Mombasa, but his wages are insufficient to sustain us. I am grateful to GiveDircetly for its constant support.

Although I have been sleeping at my brother's house, I desire to build mine. I had never constructed one. I find it easy to sleep in his house because he is away in Mombasa. Because he recently married, I am worried that if he comes with his wife, I will struggle to find a place to sleep. As a result, I intend to utilize a portion of the transfers to build my house. In the course of this year, I hope to be able to complete this. In addition, I have bought three goats, and I intend to buy more to increase the size of my herd as I continue to receive my monthly transfers.

In December of last year, I finished my secondary education. I appreciate how much the transfers contributed to my ability to pay for my education. Due to his meager $50 monthly salary, which is insufficient to meet the family's needs, my father, who is the only provider for the family, had a difficult time making sure he can pay my school fees on time. I spent $50 on both school fees and upkeep during my time in school, so the monthly transfers I received over the course of the four months were very helpful to me. Since my older brother is frequently away from home as he works in Mombasa town, have been residing in his home for the last four years. I have saved $80 from my monthly transfers, which I intend to use to construct my own home. Now that I've finished high school, this will help me gain independence and improve my privacy. I spent my December transfers on $10 worth of new clothing. I was down to just three pairs of clothing, all of which were ripped or had lost their color. I'm glad I now have nearly ten pairs of second hand clothing that will make me look nice and reputable.

Towards the end of last year, I acquired two goats and five hens courtesy of GiveDirectly's transfers. I then started setting aside $20 every month to build a house. Since I do not own a house, I have been staying with my brother. I want to have my house built so that when my brother gets home from the city, I will not bother him. I will not be concerned or inconvenienced even if he marries. I considered this goal after I had sat for my KCPE. I am glad that I have saved $80 towards that goal. Once I get the house, some of my siblings will get an additional room where they can stay. I am aiming to build by August 2023

Although I have not yet used my recent transfer, I've planned to buy livestock with it so far. After giving it some thought, I've discovered that raising goats is one of the most sensible investments among the people in my community. Every year, in the end, I see people selling quite a few goats, which brings in a respectable amount of money for them. I also think that by doing this, I will be able to generate additional income in the future. A situation that will help raising our standard of living. I currently purchased one goat from the earlier transfers, and this keeps me motivated all by itself.

After receiving the transfers, since I am still a student and at the time I had a balance in tuition fee I decided to pay my own school fees because my parents had no money to pay school fees for me and I was on the verge on being kicked out of school. Therefore I used KES 2,000 and paid my debt in school while I intended to use the remaining balance of KES 1,000 as part of my pocket money.

I am personally glad agreed to get enrolled in the program because the funds help me stay in school since I pay my own tuition fee. For instance for this term I have no debts left to pay and in turn since my parents have been struggling with finances I ease the burden and allow them to look after the needs of my five other siblings.

Other than myself, I have six other siblings who depend on my father. He, on the other hand, works as a house manager in the city. However small he earns; he ensures that he does his best to meet most if not all our needs. Before we had a term break from school, I had arrears of KES1500. I plan to settle this using the funds that I received from give directly once we resume classes. I will also use the remaining amount as my pocket money to purchase some school essentials I may need.

In all my struggles, I feel going to school has been the hardest and I am grateful for how far I have gotten as I will be joining form four. On a daily basis, I have to commute by walking 2 km to get to school. This has quite inconvenienced me in the past since I wasted so much time on the road. I am planning to rent a hostel that is near the school. This will grant me more time to study. My parents could not afford this before. Now I am more hopeful about the possibility. Through the funds from give directly, I also believe there will be a drastic reduction in the number of days I stay home due to fee arrears. Thus, an improvement in my performance.

The message that confirmed I had received funds from give directly came in at around 10 p.m. At the time, I was sound asleep. When I woke up and saw it, I was filled with so much disbelief and confusion. To me, it was not normal to get such an amount and I thought it to be a scam. But after I had my neighbors celebrating, it was when I remembered about the cash donation I was expecting. My very first idea was to settle my fee arrears so as to avoid being sent home when school reopen.