Although my main priority this year is to buy a modern bed for myself, as I currently sleep on an uncomfortable traditional bed made of ropes, this focus has changed due to the severe drought affecting our area, which has resulted in a lack of food and water. Consequently, I am spending my limited income on food to support my family. While I am saving, when it’s my turn to access those savings, I plan to use it to stock up on food to ensure my children don’t go hungry. Once the rains come, I anticipate a good harvest, allowing me to shift the money currently spent on food towards purchasing a bed and bedding as I originally intended. For now, I must endure sleeping on the ground, but having a proper bed and mattress will greatly enhance my living conditions and provide me with peace of mind. I am truly grateful for the achievements I have made so far and look forward to a brighter future.

My spouse and I depend on casual jobs, but the ongoing severe drought has made these jobs increasingly difficult to find. We're becoming more worried about the lack of rain, as it could soon impact our access to drinking water. We have four children in school, and I place a high value on their education. I believe it is their key to a better future, helping them secure jobs or stable income. I make their school fees a priority, and with the latest transfer, I spent $78 on their fees, dividing it among them to prevent them from being sent home and missing their studies. The remaining $24 was used to buy food for the family.

My top priority for this year is to buy a modern bed for myself. I currently use an old traditional bed made of ropes, which is very uncomfortable to sleep on. I plan to use my savings to purchase a new bed, along with beddings and a mattress. Having a comfortable place to sleep will greatly improve my living conditions and provide me with peace of mind. I am genuinely grateful for the achievements I have made so far and look forward to a brighter future.

I sell charcoal while my husband raises livestock to support our family of seven. Previously, it was a major struggle to buy food and pay school fees for our children. I am happy to report that things have improved. I can now pay school fees, invest in livestock, and save my transfers for emergencies. From the transfers I received, I used $35 to pay school fees, clearing a pending debt before the new term started. I then saved $20 in our local savings club for unforeseen emergencies. I also spent $27 on food for my family, as we had run out. Additionally, I bought new uniforms for my children worth $20, as their old ones were tattered and needed to be replaced. Being a recipient of this support has greatly improved my life, and I am truly grateful for the positive changes it has brought.

Our household's primary source of income comes from surplus produce from our subsistence farming efforts, which helps cover a portion of my four children's school fees and other household expenses. During times of low harvest, GiveDirectly transfers provide a critical safety net, ensuring we can meet our basic needs and educational expenses. Currently, I am saving $10 monthly in an informal group with nine other members, to accumulate funds to purchase a new bed and mattress in the coming year. Achieving my initial goal of acquiring a goat within less than a year has motivated me to invest in improving our bedding situation. Our current bedding is in poor condition, with old and worn-out items that no longer provide adequate comfort. Acquiring new bedding will significantly enhance our quality of life and ensure better rest for our family. I am deeply grateful for the financial assistance from GiveDirectly, as it has positively transformed our lives in various ways and enabled us to pursue important goals that improve our living conditions. This support has been instrumental in allowing us to plan more effectively for the future and address immediate needs with greater confidence.

I used my recent transfer to cover my children's school fees, amounting to $60. This decision was crucial to ensure that my children receive a quality education and have the peace of mind to focus on their studies. Additionally, I allocated part of my transfer, $1400, towards purchasing household items and foodstuffs for our family's needs. The financial support from Give Directly has been instrumental in enabling these essential expenditures. Moreover, I am grateful for the assistance because it allowed me to save an additional $3000 through our merry-go-round group, contributing to our financial stability.

Currently, I use traditional beds and old clothes as beddings. Due to this, I am constantly having back pains since our beddings are not comfortable. I depend on charcoal business where I burn and sell charcoal for livelihood. With the current restrictions on trees, live has been hard. For this reason, I am planning to use my savings that I'll be given in July next year to pay school fees for my children and to change our beddings through a purchase of modern beds and mattresses. This is something that I will not be able to achieve on my own without any support.

We started a merry go round group with other beneficiaries with an aim of using the money that one receives in lump sum to do something tangible in our lives. We contribute $ 20 every month and with my recent transfers, I used $ 60 to pay for my contribution. When my turn comes, I'll use it to pay school fees for my children and to purchase new beddings majorly a bed and mattress. Using the remaining amount, $ 38, I bought some detergents, food and other household necessities after using $ 4 to purchase a chicken for rearing. I have five children in different levels of education and paying their school fees with the money from our group will give me enough time to continue saving and looking for more money.

In the upcoming year and beyond, I have set my sights on achieving two significant goals. Firstly, I plan to purchase a mattress to complement the wooden bed that I intend to acquire. This will greatly enhance my sleeping comfort and overall well-being. Furthermore, I aspire to build a house specifically for my three boys, who are currently residing in a relative's house. This arrangement has been necessitated by the limited space in my own house and the need for privacy. Constructing a dedicated house for them will be a momentous achievement, ensuring that they no longer have to rely on the hospitality of relatives and can have a space of their own. These goals of acquiring a mattress and building a house represent important milestones in improving our living conditions and providing a better environment for my children.

In order to effectively utilize the funds from our monthly transfers and achieve our goals, we established a savings group consisting of seven members. Each month, we contribute $20 individually, resulting in a total of $140. This collective amount is then shared among two members of the group, who have the freedom to utilize the money to enhance their lives. With my share from the group, I used the funds to purchase a goat in a previous instance. In the next round, I intend to acquire a wooden bed. The current bed I have, made from sisal twine, is quite uncomfortable. Additionally, I saved the remaining $14 to cover the school fees for my four children, who are beginning their new term today. This will ensure that they have a conducive learning environment. Both my husband and I work as peasant farmers, and during periods of drought, we resort to extracting tree stumps to produce charcoal for sale. Thanks to the financial transfers, we are now able to meet our family's needs, something that was challenging due to the limited income from our casual jobs.

In addition to paying school fees and buying food for my family of seven members, I aim to save part of my transfers to acquire goats. Though I do not own goats now, I am optimistic that keeping goats will be a promising investment. From them, not only will I be able to raise money for an emergency, but I will find it easy to support my children's education by occasionally selling part of my flock. I do not have any business now, and I hope that if I succeed in raising livestock, it will be easy for my family to maneuver through its financial constraints. I am indebted to GiveDirectly for its monthly transfers.

I have five school-going children although I do not have a reliable source of income. We rely on making charcoal for sale and subsistence farming which has not been beneficial to us owing to dry spells experienced all over. When I received my recent transfer, I spent $20 on paying school fees for my children. They had accumulated fee arrears and had been notified to inform parents about outstanding school fees. I spent the rest, $14 to obtain food for my family of seven members. The food bought lasted us for a period of 7 days. I am glad that the previous three months' transfers helped me to pay fees and buy food.

Our household's main source of income has been surplus produce from subsistence farming. The proceeds from selling excess produce from our farm cover a portion of my four children's school fees as well as other household expenses. GiveDirectly transfers have always come in handy and cushioned us whenever we have low harvest. I am currently saving $10 monthly in an informal savings group with nine other members, which I hope to use to establish livestock farming in the coming year. I hope to buy goats and chickens, and after breeding them, I plan to sell the offspring and use the proceeds to pay my children's school fees, clothes, and other necessities for my family of seven.

I was instantly filled with so much euphoria when I realized that the transfers had been sent out by Givedirectly, especially because the holiday season was upon us and I really needed the money to acquire some few items. My immediate purchase was concerned with nutrition, so I ended up using KES 2,400 by acquiring ten packets of maize flour, three packets of wheat flour and a kilogram of sugar. Lastly I decided to save up the KES 1,000 that I was left with so that I eventually could have enough money to buy a bed.

My husband and I earn a living through farming. Ever since we stopped receiving rain, we have struggled to provide for our family’s needs (buying food, paying school fees, and clothing). I currently work on casual jobs of making and selling charcoal. It is a very tedious job with very little pay (500 per week). My husband works on manual jobs, e.g. building houses. These types of jobs are hard to find and he spends most of his time being jobless. Therefore, when I received my transfer, I spent a large portion of KES 2050 on buying food for the family. Getting was a struggle for us and it forced us to survive on one meal each day. Besides buying food, I paid school fees for my five children who were at home because of school fee arrears.

Since GiveDirectly began its operation in our village, most of the recipients have been expressing their excitement with the program. For sure, this organization does pretty well in promoting poverty alleviation among the community hard hit with poverty issues. As a result, all who have been receiving their transfers have begun experiencing tremendous improvement in their living standard. In addition, many have been able to buy items that they prioritize. However, there is nothing that GiveDirectly does not do well.

Even though my family is only constituted of three people, it has been difficult to provide for them because I do not have a stable source of income. Unfortunately, neither my husband nor I have a reliable job. As a result, when our crops failed last season, we had to resort to selling charcoal. However, due to limited demand, the charcoal business has not been very profitable for us. Sad to say, we only manage to raise KES 1,000 in a month. This is insufficient to meet all of our requirements. So as soon as I got my transfer, I utilized the money to pay my school fees and buy food stuffs.

I was out in the field looking after my goats when I received a text message. Since I do not know how to read, I immediately handed the phone to a neighbor whom we were with to help me read the message since I am not literate. The news she gave me that I had received the cash transfer made my morning. My children slept hungry the previous night and my mind kept wondering how I would get some food for them. The money was God-sent and it meant that my children had something to feed on and even more to take them for quite some time.

I am a subsistence farmer but the yield is not usually enough to feed my family of seven for a longer period. We experience drought for the better part of the year leading to poor farm yield. At the time when I received the first transfer, we were struggling to raise money for our family's needs like food, clothing, and healthcare. I, therefore, prioritized food since it is the most basic need. I am glad the stock of corn I bought has been of great support to my family. We have not struggled much courtesy of GiveDirectly.

Farming has been our main source of income. Despite the drought we are currently experiencing, we still have to prepare both our farms and the necessary farm inputs as we wait for the rains. I, therefore, bought a packet of hybrid maize seeds at KES 500 when I received the first transfer. I was given a phone by field officers at the enrollment stage which was deducted from the first transfer. The KES 650 that was left I spent on some of the foodstuffs for my family. We did not get a good harvest in the last farming season which forced us to budget for food for the better part of the year.