My spouse and I, along with our three children, currently live in a small one-room house, which doesn’t provide us with enough space. When I began receiving GiveDirectly transfers, I decided to prioritize expanding our home, something we couldn’t do before due to a lack of reliable income. With each transfer, I've been able to purchase an iron sheet every month, and I’m pleased to share that I only need about six more sheets to complete the roofing. We’ve already finished building the walls, so the final step is to complete the roof. In the coming year and beyond, our primary goal is to complete the construction. After that, I plan to invest in a goat-rearing project, which will help provide financial security for us in the future, even after the transfers stop, as goats multiply over time.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to GiveDirectly for the financial support that has enabled me to open a shop, providing me with a stable daily income and easing my financial challenges. Currently, I am at my shop, serving customers, and this brings me joy. Without GiveDirectly's assistance, it would have been difficult for me to raise the funds to start this business, as I was previously a peasant farmer and my spouse was a casual laborer relying on low-paying jobs to support our family. Initially, I was unsure about the success and growth of this business, but I'm pleased that it has been doing well. My shop offers a variety of grocery items, and I am working to expand my inventory with the recent $102 transfer from GiveDirectly, aiming to better cater to my customers' needs and increase my income. I am genuinely happy and optimistic about the future, as I can strive to enhance and expand my business further. Furthermore, the profit from my shop has been immensely helpful in covering my child's school fees and supporting my spouse in meeting our family's basic necessities, which has strengthened our relationship and facilitated improved communication.

My plan is to expand my business and increase revenue to support my family. To achieve this, I intend to use some of my transfers I receive from GiveDirectly to boost my capital and add more stock. I also plan to buy more goats with the transfers, hoping they will multiply so I can sell them in the future and reinvest the proceeds into my business. I am hopeful that this strategy will succeed, as this business has been my lifelong dream and achieving it will mean a lot to me.

I am a small businesswoman engaged in the sale of fast-moving household consumables such as maize flour and other foodstuffs. I am grateful for the transfers I have been receiving from GiveDirectly, as they have been helping me so much in my endeavors. Therefore, I spent $35 to add more stock to my business, as my dream is to see it grow and generate more revenue. Additionally, I have one child in school whom I have been supporting in education, and who was in dire need of school fees and therefore used $40 to pay for his school fees. Besides, as our crop harvests have been depleting in our store, I wanted to avoid my family going hungry and therefore, I spent $13 on food for my family. Lastly, with the remaining $14 from the transfers, I decided to buy a goat, hoping it will multiply and increase in number, providing future financial support through their sales.

I have moved from being a stay at home mother to owning a business. A light of a future greater than what I have is now beaming because of the Givedirectly transfers. Being a business owner now allows me to take care of my family's needs such as food and education. My husband is also a beneficiary and this also ensures we are not usually low on food or the children are not out of school. My goal now is to buy buy animals for me to rear. I currently have no animals and I would want to rear animals for food and as an emergency fund since I know the program will eventually come to an end.

Receiving Givedirectly transfers has transformed my life. I moved from not having a source of income to having a business. I started a grocery stall selling vegetables, sardines and other type of small fish to make a living using my transfers. I spent $10 monthly on the business amounting to $30, to add my stock from the transfers. I spent $10 on education for my children in grade 5 and grade 5 amounting to $30. Their term fees is $30 and so making a monthly contribution towards it enables me to ensure their fees are fully paid. I also spent $10 on food monthly amounting to $30. I come from a dry area and this has made us reliant on bought food and I still spend my transfers on food to ensure my family has enough for a month. I always put $4 aside that would usually be used as need arise, whether it be school provisions or it is food, I am able to meet them using the cash set aside.

I intend to increase my current herd of ten goats by saving from my transfers and business earnings. These goats act as a financial safety net, ready to be sold when challenges arise, making my strategy practical and resilient.

In my role as a devoted mother of two, I manage a small but thriving business, dealing in the essentials- fish, oil, and salt. When my transfer arrived, I did not just see money; I saw opportunities. I invested $10 wisely to enrich and expand my business, setting the stage for growth. Education is a cornerstone for my family, so $15 was dedicated to securing my child's schooling, an investment in their future. With the remaining $9, I ensured that our kitchen stayed well-stocked, guaranteeing nourishment for our journey ahead. Thanks to GiveDirectly, I am now able to think big and at least meet my family's needs.

Because of the current unpredictable economic situation, my goal has been to venture into business to diversify my household income. I consider this because, from it, I can raise money for food and fees for my children. As a result, my struggles are not as much as it was before. Even though my husband's income is low, we have not struggled as much as we used to before our enrolment in GiveDirectly's program. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for its continued support.

Both my husband and I do not have a reliable source of income. He does charcoal burning while I do small business. I used $10 to pay school fees for my son Yusuf who is in the nursery. He had fee arrears of $10, and I wanted to settle the arrears before schools close. I also spent $24 to boost my business of selling food. It is doing well, although due to the famine that we have been experiencing in our area, I always withdraw some cash from the business to help boost business. For the previous months, my transfers have been in handy in terms of helping me to pay school fees for my two school-going children and meet their nutritional needs. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the financial aid.

I run my kiosk business in a very small space, so I am unable to stock a large number of items at once. Before the year is out, I want to relocate to a larger area that can hold a lot of things. This will allow me to meet the high demand from customers who want various items. Additionally, I would like to use some of the funds to purchase more inventory for the business, which will ultimately result in enormous profit margins that will enable me to meet the needs of my family.

Before I started getting transfers from Give Directly, my husband was the only provider for the family. Within the first three months of my transfer, I opened a kiosk where I sold silver cyprinid, exercise books, maize flour, and tea leaves. I'm happy that business has gotten off to a good start and that I can help my husband take care of the family's needs by sharing in the profits. I used the entire amount of my January transfers to purchase additional items for the business. With the limited stock I have, it is challenging to meet the customers' increasing demand for the goods I sell in the shop. The transfer of funds provided a significant financial boost for purchasing additional inventory and meeting the customers' increasing demand.

Personally I applaud the organization for the great work it has done so far. Although it hasn't been long since I started receiving my first transfers, you can imagine that by now I have already set up my business which is helping me provide for my family.

The minute I noticed that the Organization had actually sent out the transfers I was filled with extreme happiness. This is because at the time I really needed the money and we were almost starving. I immediately went ahead and withdrew the money and used KES 2,000 by purchasing a bag of maize flour which contained a dozen packets. Afterwards I was left with a balance of KES 1,000 which I ended up using by investing in my small business where I sold groceries and sardines at the comfort of my home.

I am not well conversant with a phone and therefore, I let my spouse operate my phone most of the time. He is, therefore, the one who informed me when the transfer was sent. The receipt of the transfer excited us as it brought the hope of accomplishing the plans we had. Before we received the money, he had planned to save it to raise money to complete our house construction while I planned to boost my business. We were both happy with the news.

Boosting my business has been my dream and since it is my only source of income, I have not been able to raise money to achieve the dream. I am glad I have made a step towards this by saving my first transfer. I am hoping to attain the target of KES 10000 in the next three months which will see my business grow. With the improved profits, I will be able to assist my spouse in meeting our household needs.

I have saved the whole of the first transfer in my Mpesa account aiming at KES 10000 to be used later to boost my business. Restocking my kiosk has been a challenge because of the unstable prices of most of the commodities leading to a loss. We mostly rely on my spouse who is a herbalist, but he does not make enough money from it to take care of the four of us. Therefore, there are times we get foodstuffs from the kiosk. I am grateful for the support and hope for improved profits in the future.