My main focus now is to save some money from my daily casual jobs in order to start a business for my spouse. I wish to start a rental shop business which will be run by my spouse. We will be able to get additional income to meet other household basic needs of the family.

The registration and the enrollment were done well and most of the people spent the money well. Since the money was unconditional most of the people spent it on different projects. The majority build better houses and some invested in dairy-keeping projects. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well.

I spent $180 on purchasing sofa set seats, beds and mattresses. I had built a better and more spacious house but I did not have the money to buy all those items. I had never owned furniture in my house, I used to sleep on the floor since I did not have a bed. I rely on casual jobs in the village and the amount of money that I always get is so small. The money was only for food and other basic household needs. I did not have extra money to purchase the furniture. Currently, I have decent furniture and I no longer shy from welcoming visitors into my house. Besides that, I paid $50 as a dowery since I had paid part of it with the first transfer. This has given me peace of mind because I had planned on paying for it but I did not have the money. I spent $70 on purchasing utensils and kitchen items that I was missing. The remaining amount of money I spent on food and clothes. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has changed my living standard.

I was overjoyed to learn that I had received my first lumpsum. It was in the evening on my way back home from work when the message streamed in. I almost screamed on the road to celebrate instead I increased my pace since it was late. Immediately after I got home my spouse checked my phone as she does it routinely but this time she could not hide the joy after seeing the confirmation message. She had to ask me again if the whole of that amount was meant for us. It was such a joyous moment for us.

Having confidence that I have a spouse whom I have fully paid for her bride price is the biggest difference in my daily life. Nobody wants or wishes for a broken family. I feel proud as a man for the big step. Having bought the seats we have needed for a longer period makes us at ease too. We can now plan and save a little money from our income for starting a business since we have achieved most of the pressing needs.

I am a casual laborer on construction sites. One year ago I received a good sum of money from a contract I acquired and used it to construct a decent house. Since then, I have not been lucky to get another well-paying contract thus I was not able to furnish the house. I, therefore, bought seats worth KES 30000, and I am glad the house now looks decent. In addition, I had not cleared paying for my wife's dowry which got me worried about fear of my in-laws demanding their daughter back. It is the pride of everyone to have a stable family, and so I could not imagine my wife being taken away from for not paying her bride price. I then spent KES 10000 to pay for her dowry. KES 10000 I spent on our clothes and used KES 4500 to purchase foodstuffs for my family.