I currently sell chips from my home, but I have plans to expand my business as soon as it's my turn to receive funds from my merry-go-round. This expansion will allow me to increase profits, providing a better life for my family and ensuring my children receive good education without financial difficulties.

Since I began receiving transfers from GiveDirectly, I took immediate steps to enhance my family's wellbeing. One of the first things I did was join a merry-go-round to secure our financial future. Each month, we contribute $20, and from my transfers, I set aside $60 towards this initiative.Ensuring my children receive uninterrupted education is a top priority. Using $14 from the transfers, I cleared their school fees, ensuring they can continue their studies without any disruptions. I allocated $18 towards food expenses to ensure my children don't go hungry after school. Additionally, I contributed $10 towards my cousin's brother's wedding, bringing joy to their family. Before receiving support from GiveDirectly, I couldn't afford such contributions, so being able to do so now has significantly boosted my esteem within the community.I am deeply grateful to GiveDirectly for providing me with these opportunities. Their support has allowed me to make meaningful investments in my family's future and steadily improve our quality of life.

My primary goal is to expand my business. With this growth and increased profits, I will ensure that my children can attend school without facing financial challenges, providing them with the education they deserve. My other plan is to enhance the comfort of our home by purchasing furniture. I'm grateful for the transfers and the opportunities they have enabled me to pursue.

My husband, a teacher, struggles to make ends meet with his earnings alone, often leaving our household needs unmet. However, upon receiving the cash transfers from GiveDirectly, I joined a merry-go-round group and accumulated funds that I used to start a business. With the profits generated from this venture, I now support my husband in providing for our small family of four. From the recent transfers, I contributed $60 to the merry-go-round group. I then paid $20 for my children's school fees, ensuring they remained in school without the fear of being sent home, a situation we often faced before receiving the transfers. With $22 remaining, I bought food and other household necessities. The impact of these transfers has been significant; they've alleviated our financial burdens and allowed me to participate in endeavours like the merry-go-round group contribution, which were once out of reach.

I sell food, this are native coast inspired snacks. My husband is a teacher in a local secondary school. our earnings always go into taking care of family needs but will usually not be enough to cover all our needs. My business has greatly benefitted from the group we formed to save money and I plan t continue in it to ensure I can grow my earnings further. By increasing income we will be able to ensure our children attend school without struggles in terms of paying school fees.

My family was so privileged to be part of those people that would be receiving cash transfers. We realised we now had money that we could pul together and support each others ventures. We started a 10 person savings group which we contribute a monthly amount of $20. I saved $20 in November and October to the group. the remaining amount I used to buy food for my family. In December I bought my children clothes. I spent $16 for each of them.

Looking ahead to the upcoming year and beyond, my primary focus is to secure the continuous education of my children. The monthly transfers I receive will play a crucial role in achieving this objective as I plan to allocate them towards paying for their school fees. Ensuring that my children have access to quality education is of utmost importance to me. In addition to prioritizing education, I also aim to expand my business. The assistance provided through the monthly transfers presents an opportunity for me to invest in my business and drive its growth. By implementing strategies to attract more customers and enhance my profit margin, I can establish a solid foundation for long-term success. By combining these two goals, I hope to create a sustainable future for my children, where their educational needs are met, and our family's financial stability is strengthened through the growth of my business. The support I receive from the monthly transfers is instrumental in pursuing these aspirations, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work towards such achievements.

I have established a small business where I sell vegetables and fries "viazi karai", and I owe its inception to the monthly transfers I receive from Give Directly. These transfers have been instrumental in providing me with the necessary capital to start and sustain my business. As part of my financial strategy, I contribute $20 every month to a savings group. This group serves as a means to empower myself economically. In times of need, I can access funds from the group as a loan. This flexibility has proven beneficial, particularly when I require additional capital to purchase more stock and expand my business. This expansion has been a positive development for my entrepreneurial endeavors. Furthermore, I utilized a portion of the funds to purchase a set of school uniforms for my two children. These new uniforms are essential, as they allow my children to interchange them easily throughout the school week. It ensures that they have clean and presentable uniforms to wear consistently. With the remaining $4, I allocated it towards purchasing food to replenish the stock in my household. This ensures that my family's nutritional needs are met and that we have an adequate food supply. I am deeply appreciative of the financial support provided through the transfers. It has played a pivotal role in empowering me as an entrepreneur and meeting the needs of my family.

My future goal is to educate my children to a level that I would want to without being interrupted due to the lack of school fees. Therefore, I would ensure that every month, I set aside $20 for school fees payment in case there would be any amount to be settled or spent it on expanding the business and with increased profits, I would open a bank account for their education.

The transfers that I have been receiving had been of great help to my family. I currently have a Mpesa shop and alongside, I also started another business of selling fries to help to generate much income, and therefore with the transfers, I have been setting aside some amount of money every month and with the most recent one, I save $20 to boost the side business so that at the end of the month, I would be able to have enough income to cater for the needs of my family. My children also had school fees arrears and I managed to pay $10 for their school fees. And with the remaining amount of $4, I decided to buy food for my family and was very grateful for the support

Courtesy of the Givedirectly aid, I am proud of owning and operating a small business selling fried potatoes at my husband’s shop where he offers mobile money services in our village. In the coming year and beyond, I intend to boost the business by purchasing more stock. This will ensure I earn more income that will assist me in supporting my family's basic needs like food without struggle. Currently, I get an income of $6 per day on average since I have a ready market after the nearby school opens. Similarly, I intend to save $2 per day from the business, which will support the education of my two children who are still schooling.

After I got the chance to with draw the transfers I went ahead to save KES 1,500 because I happen to run a business where I cook meals to earn a living. my goal is to be able to expand my business so that it could bring me more profit and that is why I keep saving a portion of the transfers. Later on I spent KES 1,600 by purchasing Christmas attire for my children for the festivities. As for the balance that remained of KES 300 I ended up buying a packet of wheat flour and cooking oil.

I joined a rotational savings and loaning group when I started receiving the first transfer and I have since then been saving KES 1500 monthly. We are a team of eight and for the past three months, I have saved KES 4500. I aim to use my shares to boost my business of selling potatoes. I did not invest a lot of capital in it thus I have been earning low profits, but I am hopeful that once I boost it then I will be able to earn good profit that can sustain my family of three. Besides that, I have a daughter in primary school, and she owed the school KES 1500 which I cleared with part of the transfers. The remaining KES 3000 I spent on foodstuffs for my family. I am the sole breadwinner for the family, and I am glad the money has been of great help.

In my opinion, sending direct cash to poor households was a great idea from GiveDirectly. In addition, the decision on how to use the transfer was left to the individuals which has aided in improving the living standard of different households in our society. People have met most of the needs they struggled with especially school fees and livelihood activities. So far, there is nothing they are not doing well.

The little money I earn as a support in one of the primary schools is not enough to meet most of the family's needs. This has forced us to depend on two meals a day and ignore other basic needs like clothing. I have four children, and though they are still in primary school it will not be long till they get to secondary school. To afford their secondary education, I have decided to save the KES 1500 of the second transfer to raise capital for the poultry project. My target is 300 chicks, therefore I will be saving the coming transfers for the next five months thereafter start up the project. KES 1500 I spent on various foodstuffs for my family.

Being a mother who is driven with a desire to always offer the best to my children, I have been troubled with the current hard experiences of life. Failing at times to provide food for my children, has been a major source of my stressful moment. Therefore, when I realized of the GiveDirectly transfer, I was overwhelmed with joy. I knew for sure that some of my misery would be gone, since I shall be able to put food on the table for my family without much struggle. Unlike the past two months when my family and I had to take one meal a day. I am still feeling so excited with the GiveDirectly program, and I am optimistic that I shall no longer struggle like I used to, before I was enrolled in the program.

Basically, there are a number of improvements I have noticed in my life since I received my transfer. However, the most outstanding difference is being able to obtain food for my family. I feel more peaceful because I know that my family of 4 has sufficient food that it can consume for the next two weeks. In addition, I am now able to accumulate my little earnings from the sale of charcoal. The savings will help me in obtaining food for my family once we deplete what is currently available. Thanks to GiveDirectly.

I work as a PTA teacher in one of the nearby Primary School. For the past two months, I have not received my pay. Due to low level of income among the parents, tuition fee payment has in the recent times become a major problem. Such situation makes me struggle in order to raise money from unreliable sources such as doing small business of selling charcoal. When I received my transfer, I spent it on food stuffs because I am not always certain how my small business would perform. As a matter of fact, charcoal selling has become an obvious optional venture among many women in my village.