When I got married my husband was the breadwinner for his home and he was still responsible for taking his siblings through school, I geuss thats why it was not in his priorities to build his own house. I was given a house by his younger brother who is yet to marry when I was married and I have been living in that house since. My goal has been for us to eventually have a home for us. I joined the savings group to help me save better for this project. I am working towards this goal even as I allow my husband to still take care of his family as he still has three school going children he is responsible for.

I joined a village savings group some time after I got married and receiving Givedirectly transfers increased my contributions to my savings group to $20 monthly. I saved $20 in September and October to the group. The remaining transfers in September went into buying food at $8, and clothes at $6. In October I spent $10 buying chicken and $4 on food, In November I spent $4 on food and I have set aside $30 to buy clothes for my children during the holiday season.

I've been staying at my brother-in-law's house since we returned to the village. My main objectives are to build a house for my family and to start a poultry business that focuses primarily on egg production. This will be accomplished with the funds I have saved from the transfers. Building a house will ensure that my family is comfortable, as the house we are now living in is inadequate. The money from the sale of the eggs will significantly boost my income and will be a step toward financial security.

Due to the high cost of living in town, my husband and I thought it was best for me to relocate to the village with the children. We've been struggling financially for a while, so I began selling sardines to make ends meet. Give Direct transfers have enabled me to educate and clothe my children, and I am happy to say that my life has become better. I utilized $18 of the funds that I received to pay school fees and buy books for my children because I had outstanding arrears that I had not paid. In addition, I purchased $15 worth of food for my family because we were running low. I saved the remaining amount since I want to build a new house. My family is growing, and the house we presently reside in is not enough for all of us.

I have several capital-intensive projects running this year. I want to start a chicken-rearing business and build my house too. My brother-in-law gave my husband the house we live in now when we got married since my husband did not have a house. It is a one-room house and as our family is growing we would like to have more space. This has however been impossible since my husband is our sole breadwinner, his siblings depend on him for school fees and he also needs to take care of us and this does not allow for making big savings for big projects. So when I got enrolled in GD and started receiving GD transfers I decided to contribute to this. I am saving $20 monthly and so far I have $150 which I hope to use for the house. I am also setting up a structure for chicken since I want to start rearing layers chicken for the eggs. I want to sells eggs to try get some income as a result.

I joined a merry-go-round courtesy of GD transfers. I contribute a monthly amount of $20 towards the same. I also make personal savings whenever I have an amount to spare since I have a financially consuming project that I am working towards. I also have been using my transfers to ensure my family is fed. I spent $9 to buy flour and vegetables for my family in January, In February I spent $4 on food while in March I spent $14 on food. I also bought some chicken in January worth $5.

My long-term goals include more of investing on my farm where I can be able to make a living off it. I plan on buying a couple of farm animals which include goats and poultry as well. I would have definitely loved to be able to buy cows as well but unfortunately they are costly. I will also use the part of the transfers to ensure that I cater for my child's education as well. Apart from that, since my kids are also growing up I was thinking that I could use the finances to build another room so that they can have their own privacy.

In August of this year, I had the good fortune to become a mother. Everything was fine up until the end of October, when my son started experiencing some problems with a sweeling stomach. The doctor prescribed surgery to repair his body's ruptured small intestines after making several serious diagnoses. This was bad news for my husband and me because the surgery costs a lot of money and we don't make much money from our jobs. My husband is employed as a shopkeeper in Mombasa while I run a small business selling sardines in the village. The medical bills were paid for with the help of a friend's loan and all of our savings. I'm grateful that the surgery on my son in late November went well and that he is now recovering well. I spent $10 to start paying back the loan in installments as soon as I got my transfer. I set aside $20 from the transfers with the goal of saving more and constructing a house with the money. I currently reside at my brother-in-house law's because he travels for work. This allows us enough time to start saving and building our own home before returning it to the original owner. After struggling financially, I used the remaining $4 to buy two packets of maize flour.

I saved KES 2,000 from the transfer through a self-help group. The goal is to raise around KES 80,000 by January 2023 in order to build a two-bedroom house for my four-person family. We have been living in my brother-in law's one-room structure, which is becoming too small for our growing family. My husband's little earnings as a shopkeeper barely cover the necessities, such as food, so financing the construction of a new house has proven difficult. With both of our savings, I am confident that we will complete the new structure by early next year. I spent the rest of the money on food to make sure we had enough to last until the end of the month.

Everything about GiveDirectly is great. I like the idea of them coming to our village to explain their program, followed by the field officers who visited our households and respectfully attended to us. Later everyone received their transfers as was promised without any discrimination. I do not have any complaints about how they operate but am appreciative of their work.

Farming has been the easiest source of income for my family. Since we could not afford improved farming, we would use local farm inputs which resulted in poor yields. Now that I am receiving some money from GiveDirectly, I want to improve my farming. I, therefore, saved KES 2000 which I will use for plowing labor and use the coming ones to purchase farm inputs with hopes of getting an improved harvest. KES 1000 I spent on 20 kg of cornflour which is enough to push the family for some time before I start budgeting for more.

At the enrolment stage, I had some doubt that the transfer would actually be sent. So when I saw the Mpesa message, I at first thought it was a false message. To verify this, I checked my Mpesa balance, and I was thrilled with joy to discover that it was so real. At that moment I was just cooking. I immediately stopped cooking in order to inform my husband over the same. He was equally glad and adviced me to save the transfer with an aim of building our own house.

I have not yet spent my recent transfer because my long term goal is to save them in order to build a new spacious house. However, I am hopeful that I shall be able to build a new spacious house with the transfer. This will help me regain my dignity among my in laws. Some of them have been mocking my family that we are unable to build our own house.

So far I have not spent my transfer on buying any item. However, I am building my savings with an aim of spending it on buying iron sheets for building a new house. Since I got married in 2020, I have been spending in my brother in laws house because my husband has never built our own. I always feel sad to see my brother in law going to spend in the neighborhood in order to create room for me. It seriously pains me because I do not have my own space where I can keep my utensils. With the transfer, I am hopeful I shall be able to build a two bedroom house.