Later this year, I have the goal of acquiring my own motorcycle. Currently, I am running this business while being employed by a friend on a commission basis. However, with the rising cost of living, this income is no longer sufficient as I am responsible for paying my siblings' school fees and taking care of my mother. Therefore, I am saving every transfer I receive with the aim of purchasing a motorcycle soon. Once I achieve this goal, it will be a great relief. I will have full control over my earnings and will be able to support my family without the constant struggle I have faced. Additionally, I plan to save for the future, including for my upcoming nuclear family.

For quite some time, I have been providing motorcycle services, but I have always worked for friends and been paid a daily commission. However, there were days when this was not achievable, depending on the amount of cash I earned. This affected my entire family, considering that I have been the breadwinner. Over the past three months, I have managed to save $89 from the transfer to buy my own motorcycle. My target is to save $200, which will allow me to purchase a brand-new one, and I will pay the remaining balance in instalments. I believe this is the best decision ever since I already have experience in this sector. It’s a perfect business that will help me overcome all the financial difficulties I’ve faced, including providing school fees for my siblings and taking care of my elderly mother. Once I own the motorcycle, whatever I earn will be mine, unlike before, when I had to share it with the owner. Additionally, I used $14 to buy food, which has lasted for a while. At least now, we never lack something to eat, unlike before, when it was uncertain if we would have a meal.

With my monthly transfer, my main goal is to help my sisters with school. Seeing how hard they work in their studies makes me hopeful about their future success and our family getting out of being poor. At the same time, I want to start a goat business to make more money. When the goats get bigger and I sell them, I think I'll make some good money. I'm grateful for the first bit of money that got me started on this plan, and I feel lucky for it. Right now, I have seven goats, but I want to get more to make even more money

My mother is responsible for providing for us all, balancing farming and casual labor to ensure our needs are met, including my younger siblings' education. Witnessing her challenges, I took action after completing my secondary education. Recognizing the swift profitability and manageable demands of goat rearing, I invested $90 from recent transfers to acquire three goats for my project, using the remaining $12 to purchase food for our family. Establishing this venture not only brings me joy but also promises to ease the financial strain on my family by generating income from selling offspring to support my siblings' education expenses, thus lightening my mother's load. Consequently, the direct financial support I receive has truly transformed my life.

As I said I am saving towards going to college. I have saved since being enrolled monthly. I have been in the program two years and my hope is by next year much I will have enough to take me through the first semester as I need $600 to start my first semester and complete it. I will be joining school to study masonry professionally to allow me get into opportunities that now I am unable to go for as I do not have the skills or qualifications but thanks to Givedirectly transfers this dream is not far fetched.

I finished form four in 2018 and was unable to join college. I had a younger sibling who was in secondary school as well and my parents could not afford to take care of school fees for both of us. When Givedirectly registered me to their program I made a decision to work towards ensuring I join college from the $34 I receive $4 will be used to buy food for the house while the remaining $30 I will send to my account to allow me save for college. This has been my trend each month I have not changed this since I was enrolled.

My primary focus at the moment is to settle the long-standing school fees debt, which has been pending since I graduated from high school in 2018. This debt, totaling $200, needs to be paid off to obtain my academic certificates, which, in turn, will allow me to enroll in a masonry college. These certificates are a prerequisite for college admission, and without them, I cannot pursue my passion for masonry professionally. Despite the financial constraints, especially related to supporting my mother in paying my sister's school fees, I am determined to achieve this goal. I have gained valuable foundational skills in masonry through the casual jobs I've taken in house construction, and my dream is to receive professional training in college. I hope that by early next year, I will have accumulated enough funds to settle the pending tuition fees at my previous high school, enabling me to take significant steps toward realizing my passion and career goals.

Since graduating from high school in 2018, I have been unable to obtain my academic certificates due to an outstanding debt of $200 in school fees. My goal has always been to work towards clearing this debt over the past few years, but various challenges, such as limited income and financial responsibilities like providing for my younger sister, who is currently in form four, made it difficult to save enough money to settle the balance. This is why I have been diligent about saving the cash transfers I receive, including the recent one. I believe that with our recent successful harvest that has assured my family food, by the end of this year, I will have saved enough from these transfers to finally clear my school fees debt.

With the assurance of the monthly transfer, my primary goal is to continue to help my sisters so that they can advance with their studies. I get motivated to see them putting in more effort in their studies, and that gives me hope that they will be able to succeed in their academics. My second goal is to raise domestic fowls. They will be my alternative source of income which. In the long run, I hope to realize financial benefits from them once they mature and I sell some.

Although I am a young and single man, I depend on the motorcycle taxi business to earn a living. However, since my mother is a widow with no other source of income, I constantly pitch in to help her raise school fees for my two school-age siblings. With the recent transfer, I spent $30 on paying school fees for my two sisters. Both are currently in form four and form three. Our mother is poor and always relies on the transfer that mainly helps her to buy food for the family. I am glad that I could lend a hand, and my sisters are comfortable in school. I also spent $4 on buying a hen. For the past four months, my spending trend has been on school fees and acquiring at least a hen.

For the longest time now, I have been saving a small portion of my transfers so that I could eventually have enough money to join college, which will allow me to help provide for myself in the future. I have so far managed to save more than half of the amount that I need, so I'm closer than I imagined. This means that by the end of the year, I will have officially begun my masonry course. Furthermore, I will also use another part of the transfers to help pay for my sister's tuition, who happens to be in high school, because my mom cannot do it all by herself since my sister's full tuition is quite high. Lastly, I also intend to speak on poultry farming for commercial benefit before the end of the year, and at the moment I have begun building the shed.

After I got enrolled into the program I decided that I was going to save up a part of the transfers each single time because I had the hopes of joining college. This is because after I graduated high school back in 2018 my mom being a single parent could not afford to pay my fees and my siblings fees as well so I had to make a sacrifice and wait till I got the finances to do so. Therefore this time around I saved up KES 2,000 as I normally did. The funds also help me to provide nourishment for my family and myself when my mother is struggling. Therefore, I ended up spending the remaining balance of KES 1,400 by purchasing six packets of maize flour and beans.

Because I hail from a poverty-stricken family, my dream of advancing my studies is short-lived. My parents always burn charcoal as a source of their livelihood. Their low level of income deprived me of an opportunity to advance my studies. When I received my transfer, I opted to save it to raise money for my college fee. I aspire to enroll in a certificate course in management. Currently, I do motorcycle taxis to continue supporting myself.

GiveDirectly have truly helped and their indiscriminating culture of choosing eligibility of who to receive the unconditional transfers has been top notch and we are very grateful.

Jobs have been hard to come by in these tough economic times making finances a rare commodity. I make my daily income from being employed as a motorcycle taxi rider. The pay is not that much as on a good day, I average KES 300 but it is better than having none at all. I am single and currently live with my parents and siblings at our childhood home. The KES 3000 received from GiveDirectly has been a major boost, as I am now able to renovate my house so that I move out of my parent’s place. I was able to buy three bags of cement at KES 2000 and pay the cost of the mason with the remaining KES 1000.

I was riding motorbike when I heard a message notification, because I was expecting the transfers to be send at around that time, I stopped to check if it was the transfers message and truly it was. I was so happy as I rushed to the market to buy solar lamp that I had planned to buy.

The biggest difference is that I can now save the money that I used to buy kerosene towards paying my siblings school fees or food.

Since I was born, we have been using Kerosene lamp for lighting at home and it's very expensive and dangerous at the same time because we live in a tiny grass thatched house which can easily catch fire. My siblings were also not able to study at night because the lighting was dim. I have always wanted to provide an alternative source of light which is cheap and solar was the best choice that I could go for since we live in a very hot climate zone. I work as a motorcycle rider to earn living and the commission of KES 200 that I was earning daily couldn't manage to buy solar as I was also assisting my mother who is a window with family responsibilities. I spend KES 2500 of my first transfer to buy a solar lamp and KES 500 to buy food. We usually charge the lamp during the day and it's capable of providing light the whole night and charge our phones. I can now save the money that I used to buy kerosene towards my siblings school fees.