I was a tailor but my work had been greatly affected by the drought. Many stopped making clothes and I lost most of my customers in turn. My children who are school going used to be the biggest beneficiaries of my business as I used my earnings to take them through school. Now I am reliant on the transfers to ensure this happens. I am hoping to use this transfers to take my children through school and have then become working class citizens where they are able to take care of themselves.

My 3 children have been great beneficiaries of Givedirectly transfers. I have used my transfers to ensure they stay in school. In June I spent $15 to pay for their school fees while I spent my entire August transfers settling their school fees balance. I also used the money to settled debts I had accumulated in the shop from where I get food items. I paid $25 in July and $15 in June. I was also able to buy toiletries in July whole also buying sugar using this transfers in the same month.

My main goal is to see my children go to school until they complete their high school education without facing the challenges of being sent home for school fees. To achieve this, I would ensure that I save every part of my monthly transfers so that whenever there would be school fees need, I would not have to struggle as I had done before.

For the longest time now, I have been buying food for my family on credit because my husband and I do not have reliable sources of income and getting money had been quite a struggle, with the little that we manage to get, we spend it all on other necessities as well. GiveDirectly coming in, had been a blessing to my family since that had always been the money that we mostly rely on every month. Therefore, I normally buy food on credit and wait for the transfers to settle the debts, and with the most recent one, I paid debts worth $21.70 for the items I borrowed and paid school fees amounting to $13 to my two children who had been sent home for school fees. I felt so relieved and grateful.

I would like to start farming, and rear chicken for commercial purposes. I currently have twenty chicks and hopefully, they will mature, reproduce and fulfill my dreams to start a business.

Before receiving the transfer, I would only afford one meal a day. I am a tailor and in the village, I do not get enough customers to make me enough money to cater to all my family's needs. Most days I make $1.5. My husband is a masonry, he gets $8 a day whenever he gets lucky and called in for a job. His money helps pay school fees for my four children. And whenever he is not called for work my children are sent home from school. Receiving this money has enabled my children to be in school full-time. I spend the most recent transfer to pay school fees for all my children.

In my opinion GiveDirectly did very well by enrolling everyone within the household. Having my husband and myself receiving the money separately have made our lives very easy and greatly reduced the cost of living as well. The security information has helped us keep the money safe as well. On the other hand, I did not find anything that I thought GiveDirectly could have improved or could have done better. Everything they did was good and we appreciate it.

I used $15 to pay school fees for my four children and another $15 to buy food and water for the family. I am a mother of four and I normally do tailoring as an income generating business. Things have lately been very tough for everyone largely because of the drought and famine experienced in our area. There is no crop farming and even livestock are facing the worst starvation. My business has been performing dismally just like anyone else and getting to make even as little as $3 per day is now a toll order. We are so grateful and lucky to have been part of the beneficiaries of this program since we get to receive the money monthly and in turn use it to buy food, water and also pay school fees for our four children. In my household, my husband and I are receiving the cash and this makes it very easy to budget and share costs within our household. Things would have been tougher had we not received money from GiveDirectly.

I was in the market attending to my business around 3.00 p.m. when I received the M-PESA message. I felt so excited after checking my account balance and found I had received money from GiveDirectly.

The biggest difference is the reduced financial burdens. The income from my business is too little hence could not enable me to cater to my basic needs. I used the money to buy food and pay school fees enabling us to enjoy balanced diets and have reduced financial burdens. In addition, my husband used his transfer to repair our house which had become so weak making us live in fear. We now enjoy comfortable accommodation courtesy of GiveDirectly's support. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the support that has since enabled us to live a decent life.

I am a tailor and roast potatoes along the road that I sell for income generation. We are six people in the family; my husband, four kids, and I. All our kids are school-going and I help my husband pay their school fees. The transfer from GiveDirectly helped us a lot because it came when we had run out of food and had nowhere to get money to buy food or pay school fees for our kids who were already back at home due to an unpaid fee balance. Using the transfers, I settled KES 400, part of the school fee arrears, and bought food worth KES 800. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for supporting me financially.