I am currently relying on monthly transfers to educate my five children. One of them is in high school, while the others are in primary school. Given the difficulty in securing casual construction jobs these days, I believe it's the transfers that will ensure that my children stay in school. Raising their fees, particularly for my son in high school, has been a challenge for me, especially while trying to provide for other essential needs such as food. Therefore, I plan to use these transfers to pay the school fees on time and ensure that my children are not sent home due to a lack of fees. I also plan to invest in rearing more chickens and letting them multiply. By doing so, I will be able to supplement my meagre earnings from casual jobs since I can readily sell them to meet my financial needs.

I have always found it difficult to provide for my family of eight by relying mainly on casual jobs. As the breadwinner of the family, there were times when I failed to secure a job, which meant that my family would either sleep without food or my children would have to be sent away from school for failing to pay their fees on time. However, I am grateful to GiveDirectly for providing me with the monthly transfers that give me peace of mind, as the assurance of receiving this money alone helps me to plan for the future. Currently, I have five children enrolled in various levels of education, with one in high school and the others in primary school. To ensure that their education is not interrupted due to fees, I used $50 from the recent transfer to pay their fees on time. This has allowed them to remain in school, especially my son, who is in high school. In addition to this, I also spent $20 of my recent transfers to buy four chickens, which I am currently rearing. I plan to have a poultry project where I can breed these chickens in large numbers and sell them to settle my financial obligations, such as paying my children's school fees. Whenever I fail to get a job, I can rely on the chickens to provide for my needs. I spent the remaining amount mainly on buying food for my family, ensuring that we never lacked food. As the sole provider, this has given me peace of mind knowing that my family is well fed despite the financial hurdles that I face.

With my current living situation, my entire family, including my children, resides in a cramped two-roomed house. However, I have set a personal objective to build a new house for myself, allowing my children to continue living in the existing two-roomed house. This plan is driven by my desire to safeguard and improve my privacy, especially as my children are growing up rapidly, making it challenging to coexist in the same living space. The prospect of constructing a new house fills me with immense joy, knowing that the transfers I have received will enable me to accomplish this goal. The assistance I have received has provided me with the means to create a separate living space for myself, promoting a sense of independence and personal space. I am grateful for the opportunity to enhance my living conditions and ensure the well-being of both myself and my children.

I work as a mason, constructing houses for others, but unfortunately, my earnings from this job are quite meager. As a result, I face significant challenges in meeting the basic needs of my family, including food, education, and clothing. However, after a successful harvest from our farm, I decided to allocate the funds I used to spend on purchasing food towards buying new clothes for my children. Their previous garments were beyond repair and in tatters. Unfortunately, during this period, my son was involved in an accident that resulted in a dislocated leg, necessitating his admission to the hospital. As I focused on nursing him back to health, I was unable to work. Thankfully, with the arrival of my transfers, I utilized a portion of the funds to repay a $20 debt incurred from purchasing food on credit. Additionally, I ensured that my children's school fees were paid to prevent them from being expelled due to outstanding balances. Furthermore, I allocated $34 from the transfers to settle the hospital bill accrued during my son's hospitalization following the severe leg accident. I am immensely grateful for the financial assistance I am receiving, as it has been instrumental in ensuring that my family and I can lead a decent life.

Food shortages and raising fees have been my major financial challenges, which the transfer has so far helped me overcome. The little earnings from the casual construction jobs that I normally do have not been enough to effectively buy food as well as school fees for my children. I have eight children, and two completed their primary education, but due to a lack of money, they couldn't join high school. I was hoping for a sponsorship, but it failed. I am planning to enrol them in a vocational training college to pursue a tailoring course, in which I believe they will gain some skills that will enable them to be self-reliant in the future. Three of my children are also currently in school, and my goal is to ensure that they complete their primary and high school studies as I continue receiving the monthly transfers. I do not want them to end up like their older sisters. I am currently engaged in farming since the rains are now adequate, and I am hoping to get a good harvest. Once I have enough food in my household, I will no longer spend much on food. This will give me an opportunity to fully educate my children through the transfers.

Receiving the transfer has brought a huge relief to me because I was able to adequately provide for my family as well as pay fees for my children. I remember sinking into debt because I was always buying food on credit, which I could not pay on time. The casual jobs that I mainly relied on were not paying well, and I had no choice but to borrow heavily from neighbors who own shops. I thank GiveDirectly because, apart from helping me to clear the outstanding debts, my family did not lack food over the past few months. I also spent the transfer on paying school fees for my three children, and I'm happy they were allowed to continue with their studies. My prayer is to see my children achieve their educational goals despite the financial challenges.

My current two-room house is growing smaller for my growing family. The eight children have to occupy one small room while their mother and I use the other. I would like to build another two-room house to accommodate my wife and me, and leave the current structure to my children. Since I have building expertise, I work on the project by myself to cut labor costs. Therefore, what I need is at least $200 to buy iron sheets and building poles. I pray that I get calls for more jobs so that I can provide for my family while I save the cash transfers for the construction project. 

Providing for my wife and eight children is becoming tougher by the day. My job of house construction rarely comes by because not so many people are building houses in my area. With the lack of these jobs, it becomes hard to afford some basic needs like food for my family. In fact, when I received the recent transfer, my family was starving as we had eaten nothing from the previous afternoon. I immediately spent $29 on maize flour. Am glad that it lasted long enough to when I got a job. I spent the remaining $5 on books for my children as schools had just resumed. Similarly, the entire transfer received in December went towards food and the one in November went towards settling school fee debts for my children. 

We are a family of ten members, eight children, my wife, and I. As a result of the current economic situation, life has been unbearable for us. I constantly struggle through casual jobs to raise money just for food. Therefore, as soon as I received the recent transfer, I consulted my wife, and we pooled our transfer and bought maize grains for $50. I am glad that we have had regular meals for about three weeks. It would have not been possible without the transfer. Before I confirmed my transfer, we had no food in the house. I had contemplated going and borrowing some maize flour from the neighborhood shop. Luckily, the transfer came in and I avoided getting into additional debts since I had some running loans of about $5 that I had not serviced. I am glad that currently, I have been doing well. With regular food, I always feel strong to go and look for casual jobs to supplement the food we bought with the GiveDirectly's transfers.

I am happy that the unconditional transfers from giving Directly are helping me take care of my family’s needs, which I cannot do due to my low income. I would like to encourage the organization to increase the monthly stipend. Food prices have risen, and it is hard to plan because the amount is very little.

I work as a casual laborer, building houses for other people, fetching water for other people, and working on other people’s farms. The challenge I face working on these jobs is low payment (KES 200) and mostly on a short contract lasting a day or two. This makes it hard to plan thoroughly for the income and often I cannot provide food for my family, forcing us to buy food on credit. I have accumulated lots of debt that I cannot pay and, as a result; I have lost my dignity in the community. I am glad that when I received my transfer; I spent KES 1700 on buying food for my family. We hardly had any food in the house and we spent three days without eating food and could not buy food on credit due to the already accumulated debt. Besides buying food, I spent KES 1500 on paying school fees for my children, who were on the verge of being sent home due to school fee arrears. Finally, I spent KES 1000 on buying new pairs of school uniforms for my two children whose uniforms were torn and worn out.

That day it was certain that my family was going to sleep hungry. I had been waiting for my wages which seemed to have been delayed. When I came home my younger children were crying because they were hungry. Fortunately, I noticed the transfer had been sent at 5 pm. This was good luck and I feel so excited. At long last, I was able to buy food and we all ate to our satisfaction. I am indebted to GiveDirectly.

The biggest difference in my life is being able to buy food for my children. It helped me in buying food for the entire family that lasted for 4 days. I am so happy because I was able to pay the debt I had taken to acquire food. I am glad that my family is not in some debt. Thanks to GiveDirectly.

My family had no food on the day the transfer was sent. We had gone to bed hungry the night before, and there was no indication of when I might be able to get some money. Because my wife is a stay-at-home mom, it is difficult for her to care for our complete family of ten. I work as a house builder, however, I have not had much work in the last three months. The majority of people have chosen to spend their wages on food rather than on projects. As a result, I had to spend the entire transfer buying meals for the family. I am glad that currently, my family can feed well.