My main goal in the coming year and beyond is to heavily invest in purchasing livestock. I plan to focus on buying goats because they are affordable and relatively easy to rear. As these goats multiply, I’ll have the opportunity to sell some and generate income. In the event of an emergency, the goats will act as a safety net, allowing me to quickly raise money and attend to any pressing needs. To achieve my goal, I plan to save a portion of my transfers in the coming months. Once I have accumulated enough money, I will start purchasing the goats and gradually build up my herd. This will provide a sustainable source of income and help secure my family’s future. I am very happy and appreciative of the financial support from Give Directly. The transfers have empowered me to meet my family’s needs and enabled me to pursue my long-term goals of financial stability and growth.

My life has undergone a huge transformation ever since I was enrolled in the cash transfer program. Before, I struggled immensely to put meals on the table for my family of nine because I didn’t have any reliable source of income. My husband does not have a permanent job and often relies on the goodwill of his friends to lend him their motorcycles so he can work and earn some money. This inconsistency in income made it extremely difficult to meet our daily needs, and my children were frequently sent home from school due to unpaid school fees. With the help of the transfers, I was able to make significant improvements in my family’s well-being. I paid $15 in school fees, ensuring that my children could go back to school and continue with their education without interruptions. I also spent $40 to purchase food for my family, which meant we no longer had to worry about where our next meal would come from. Knowing that my family was well-fed and nourished gave me immense relief and happiness. In addition, I spent $12 on animal feeds for my over 40 hens, ensuring their survival and well-being. I view these hens as a future source of income. Once they mature, I plan to sell some of them and earn a good profit. This will allow me to reinvest in other areas of my household’s needs. Furthermore, I saved $20 in a savings group with the goal of accumulating funds to purchase livestock, particularly goats. The goats will be a future investment and serve as a safety net in case of emergencies.

I have been investing in chicken with the hopes of selling them in the future when needed and trading some for goats. The goats are also intended to multiply, increase in value, and eventually be sold to support my family. I had around 60 chicken, but unfortunately, around 20 of them died due to illness. This setback made me very sad but did not discourage me and I am now happy with the progress that I have made. I therefore plan to buy and raise more chicken using my transfers and with the help of my husband, so that in the future, they can help me take care of my family.

I have six school-going children, and the transfers came at a crucial time when my kids had been sent home due to unpaid school fees. Seeing them at home always breaks my heart, so the transfers were a savior for us. I immediately spent $68 of the received funds to pay their school fees, allowing them to return to school and continue their studies which made us happy. Additionally, we had run out of food, and to ensure my children would not go hungry, I spent $22 on food for my family. Finally, I have been investing in chickens, so I spent $12 to buy more, hoping they will multiply. In the future, I plan to sell some chickens when needed and trade others for goats. These goats will also multiply and increase in value and help support my family's needs in the future.

I am considering investing in chickens. Currently, I have six chickens and forty chicks. My strategy is to nurture them until they mature, then sell them to purchase goats. Raising chickens is relatively simple, and providing them with feed is easy. I aim to save a significant portion of the proceeds from selling the chickens to improve my family's quality of life.

I am a mother of eight children. Upon receiving my transfers, I promptly withdrew the transfer and allocated $15 to divide among six of my children for their school fees. With the remaining transfer, I invested $4 in purchasing chicken feed for my six chickens and their offspring, totaling forty chicks. The remaining balance of $15 was utilized to purchase nutritious food for my family, ensuring their health and well-being.

I have a plan to sell my chickens and supplement the amount to purchase more goats. Presently, I own two goats and intend to acquire more in the future. My goal is to invest in goats, as they can serve as a valuable asset that I can sell in case I encounter financial challenges. This will enable me to manage my debts effectively and any financial challenges I encounter.

I am a mother of eight children; six of them are in school, while two are too young for school. When I received my transfer, I immediately used $15 to pay the school fees for four of my children to ensure they wouldn't be turned away. Currently, I have over thirty-six chickens, and I recently purchased four more for $10 to expand my poultry. My goal is to invest in more chickens, with the eventual plan of selling them to buy goats. With the remaining $9, I bought food to ensure that my entire family doesn't go hungry.

My goal is to establish a thriving livestock-rearing project. With the transfers I've received, I've already taken the initial steps by purchasing three chickens and one goat. One chick goes for $5 and to progress further, my plan is to begin the project next month and allocate a portion of my transfers to acquire at least two additional chickens each month. This expansion will help me work towards my goal of building a thriving and sustainable livestock enterprise.

The money I received from GiveDirectly was of great help. It came at a crucial moment when I was facing multiple financial burdens. With the transfer, I was able to address the pressing issue of school fees for my children, who had been sent home from school. I divided $15 among my five children, alleviating the immediate concern of their education. Furthermore, I used $10.70 to purchase food for my family, ensuring that we had enough to sustain ourselves and I also managed to spend the remaining $9 to cover my medical bills. I felt much relief and thanks to GiveDirectly for the immense support.

My goal for the next one year and beyond is to start a chicken-rearing project. I would want to rear chicken in large scale and later sell some of them to buy livestock ie. goats knowing that with the projects in place, I would be in a better position even when faced with a financial challenge. The transfers form GiveDirectly would help me attain my dreams since I would be saving some amount of money on a monthly basis.

I have a house that is in a dilapidated state and it had always been my wish to buy a bag of cement so that I could renovate one side of the house that seems to be falling apart, and therefore with the transfers that I received, I felt very happy knowing that I would soon start the renovation because I managed to buy a bag of cement worth KES.1000. Also, with the ongoing drought, getting food had been quite a challenge and therefore I also bought food worth KES. 1470 and spent the remaining amount of KES.1000 on paying school fees to my 5 children where I divide KES. 200 to each.

GiveDirectly did well to provide support in terms of money. I have not seen a support program that supports people through cash and offers to give the same amount of money for a long duration of time. I would not want to GiveDirectly to do anything differently.

My husband is a casual laborer and mainly relies on casual jobs in construction projects or farming for other people to meet our financial needs. Lately due to drought, it has been tough to secure a job and most of the time he spends his day looking for a job only to come home with nothing. I have eight children and it has been a challenge to provide food for all of them. Most days we have survived with a cup of black sugarless tea just to see us through the night. Upon receiving my transfer I spent $ 18 on food which would last us for the next two weeks and $12 used to pay the outstanding school fees for the seven children in junior school. I was relieved to at least not worry about food for the next two weeks as my husband looks for a job.

The minute I realized that the money had actually arrived I was extremely happy especially because it was already night time, I had zero expectations of receiving money at that time and not only that but also the fact that I really needed the money since my kids needed to sit for their exams and we also needed food in our house.

My biggest priority was to ensure that my children would go back to school because unfortunately when I had failed to pay the examination fee they had to be sent home for like a day but luckily the next day after I received the money and I sent them back to school and they were fortunate enough to finally sit for their exams.

As soon as I received the money I decided to pay examination fee for five of my children which was about KES 350 so that they could finally sit for their exams. I also ended up using the balance of KES 850 that I was left with by using KES 600 to purchase three packets of maize flour because we missed a meal the night before and as for the KES 250 I set it to buy groceries and laundry detergent.