My goal for the coming year is to spend heavily on preparing my land for farming before the rains come. I grow maize and cereals mainly for subsistence use. Securing enough food from the farm will help me use the money to educate my children. That way, they will have a good environment to learn and pursue their career goals. I am very grateful for the support from the transfers, which has helped me take care of my family.

Last year, two of my children successfully completed their primary education, excelling in their national examinations and earning the opportunity to continue their studies in secondary school. In anticipation of their transition, I initiated a savings plan to cover various expenses such as school fees, books, and uniforms. Through diligent saving, I accumulated $102, a significant contribution toward achieving the goal of enrolling my children in secondary school. This accomplishment was made possible by the financial support from the transfers. My income, primarily derived from casual jobs in construction and the sale of wild meat, is limited. Without the assistance from the transfers, realizing this educational goal for my children would have been challenging. I express deep appreciation for the invaluable support that has facilitated this milestone.

My ultimate goal is to expand my meat-selling business and establish my butcher stall along with a food stand right next to it. To start this venture, I estimate that I will need at least $100 in capital. I'm now more optimistic than ever about accumulating this amount because we recently harvested maize produce that will provide food for my family for the remainder of this year. With the food constraints eliminated, I'm confident that I can save $25 every month over the next four months to reach the required capital for my business expansion.

Ever since the year began, we experienced significant food shortages as drought was still prevalent in my region. During this time, part of the cash transfers I received went towards purchasing food to feed my family. Additionally, I have three children in primary school who rely on me to pay their tuition fees. Each month, I need to allocate at least $28 for their tuition, and I also have to provide $9 every week for two of them since they stay in a rental space near their school. To cover these educational expenses, I primarily rely on the profits from my door-to-door beef meat-selling business. The cash transfers have played a vital role in boosting this business, enabling me to generate more income. From the three recent cash transfers, I set aside $62 to increase my meat stock for the business. I'm pleased that by reinvesting in my business, the cash transfers have significantly contributed to providing for my family. I have also saved the remaining $40. Typically, my goal is to reinvest this money into my business as well, but I need to first check if any pending tuition fee balances for my children could jeopardize their education. Once I've taken care of their school fees, the remaining funds will be allocated to the business.

So far, the transfer has helped me boost my business of supplying meat in the village, from which I have been earning a good living, unlike previously. I've been able to meet my household's basic needs with ease thanks to the business, and my children are also in school. My goal for the coming year and beyond is to ensure that my children receive the best education possible and that their education is not disrupted due to a failure to pay their fees on time. I have three children in primary school and one in a technical college studying tailoring. I intend to purchase a sewing machine for her, which will cost around $130 so she can open her own tailoring shop after she graduates college. By doing so, she will be able to support herself.

I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the assistance I have received, which has improved my standard of living. To begin with, because the rain has been adequate, I have been able to prepare my four acres of land for planting. I hired a tractor and completed the task of planting maize, and my expectation is that a good harvest will result in food availability in my household in the coming months. In addition, I paid some fees for my children, and they were permitted to continue their studies. I'm glad I have plenty of time to raise fees for their upcoming term. In addition, I spent $20 on the transfer, which helped my small business of buying meat from slaughterhouses and supplying it to villages. My daily profits have increased to $7, allowing me to easily meet the basic needs of my household, such as food.

For the past three years, I have been running a butchery shop. I started with a small capital, but steadily it has been growing. However, from it, I could always generate an average profit of $3 a day for the first two years. Since I got enrolled in GiveDirectly's program, I have been investing a portion of my transfers to boost my business. Therefore, immediately after I received my recent transfer, I pumped the whole of it into the same business. I am glad that there is a registered improvement in its performance since then. As a result, I have begun to realize an average profit of $5 daily, with the highest at times going to $10. Consequently, catering for meals and school fees for my five children seems to be lessened. I am so grateful for GiveDirectly's financial aid.

In my opinion GiveDirectly did very well by enrolling everyone without giving them conditions on how the money should be spent. Receiving the money monthly rather than in lumpsum was also a very nice decision. We can all make proper decisions with the little that we get as we make progress in bits.

Used $15 of my recent transfer to improve my butchery business and used another $15 to buy food and other basic household needs for my family. Before I had increased my stock of meat I would make a profit of up to $8 per day but this has changed right now. I can make a profit of up to $12 per day and I am so grateful for this positive trend in my business. I am a father of five with four of my children already in school. My wife does charcoal selling business to earn a living and she uses this money to support our family. Most of the expenses that we incur are to hose of paying school fees for our children. I am so happy that the money has boosted my business and I will forever be indebted to GiveDirectly.

I hardly saw that I had received the money that day because I was quite busy th trying to run my business and it was only after I got home when I saw the funds. Ordinarily I was quite happy especially because it was completely unexpected.

Investing in my business was the most vital thing I did with the transfers especially because the profit I make helps me sustain my family and our day to day needs.

My daughter happens to be in a college where she is learning tailoring and when I received the money she had an outstanding debt so I ended up using KES 1,200 from the funds I had received to pay for that. I also have a business where I own a butcher so I used the remaining part of the donation which was KES 1,800 and used it as part of the capital for the business.