As well as being a fisherman and a mason, I also practice farming when weather conditions allow. My wife works as a full-time farmer, and at present, we are cultivating our small plot of land with the rest of the family. I have ambitions to expand our farming operations in the coming years. Earlier this year, we didn't have to purchase maize flour as we had a bountiful harvest from our farm. I am keen on growing more crops, both for selling and for personal use. I have been contemplating planting banana stems, and maize. Furthermore, I intend to raise the number of goats we have for future financial security. In addition to the small plot of land given to us by my parents, I am working towards saving a portion of my regular income to acquire an additional piece of land, roughly an acre in size, that my wife and I can call our own.

I want to express my deep gratitude to GiveDirectly for the financial assistance. It has significantly alleviated the financial strain on my family. Providing for five children without a stable job has been incredibly challenging, especially since we had no harvest last season due to prolonged drought. My top priority is to ensure that my three children receive a proper education, so I allocated $4 towards their school fees to prevent them from being sent home due to outstanding balances. I also spent $30 on purchasing a new phone after my old one stopped working, which was crucial for communication. When I received the recent transfer, my household had run out of food, so I used $9 to buy groceries for the family. In addition, I decided to invest $29 in purchasing a goat as I plan to start goat keeping for future financial stability. With $30 remaining, I purchased solar for lighting.

I am a fisherman as well as a Mason, I also farm from time to time depending on the weather conditions. My wife is the fulltime farmer. For now we are farming with the rest of the family on our family land which is not much. I would love to farm more in the years ahead. in the beginning of this year we were not buying maize flour as we had harvested from our farm. I would like to farm more crop enough to sell and use at home, I have been thinking of planting paw paw trees, and banana stems as well as maize. I would like to save as I also increase the goat which I hope I will sell to buy a piece of land for me and my family to farm on.

Early last year my wife gave birth to our fourth child, it was a joy to us as our family was growing. Our two eldest were already school going and my third child was already off the phase of constantly having milk. The arrival of the new born changed things as we now had to buy milk daily for the youngest. we spend $1 daily on milk which is away from our daily food budgets. My earnings vary since they fully depend on when I get construction work. At this point we were also starting to think about school fees for the older ones. We had been buying milk for the longest time but this was becoming an expensive affair. I decided in march to save my entire transfers until we could afford a nursing cow or a cow that was to soon calve to remove this budget, after saving for three months and selling some goats, I bought a cow in May at $160. This is a joy since we all now in the family, as well as the bay have access to milk. I also know once she gets off the milk we can sell it and make some cash.

Givedirectly transfers give you a chance to see life in a different way and build yourself from ground up. I am a father of four, two school going children while two are yet to join school. I am a fisherman during the rains and charcoal seller during the dry periods. My wife is a farmer. I make below $3 daily from any of the ventures I am involved, if I am lucky. This means I am unable to cover all the financial needs in my house. I would want to build on the animals I own so they are able to reproduce and make me enough money to get my children through school. The Givedirectly transfers allow me to own animals which I breed for reproduction.

Givedirectly transfers have made things that I viewed as unreachable to be reachable. I have had a very worn out mattress for so many years which was completely worn out. I was informed I would need about $35 to purchase a new one. With so many necessities such as food and clothes on my neck I had forgone the attempts of replacing the mattress until December where I used my entire transfer to buy mattress. I now sleep soundly thanks to this purchase. I have also bought two goats and added them into my heard. I now have four goats. They both cost $#4 and $35 respectively and I used my transfers in addition to my savings to purchase them.

First, I plan to acquire an acre of land for $500, which would mark a significant step toward securing our own living space. Currently, we reside at my uncle's place together with my father. Furthermore, I intend to expand my livestock holdings by increasing the number of goats. This expansion will enable me to generate additional income when I sell some of them. With this extra income, I will be able to purchase two male cows for ploughing my land. This investment will not only facilitate the cultivation of my own land but also provide an opportunity to offer ploughing services to others. I'm excited about how all these endeavors will boost my income and provide me with financial stability.

I have three children. My firstborn is 7 years old, the second child is 5 years old and our youngest is 3 years old. Some time ago, their bed broke, and I struggled to find a replacement. Fortunately, I managed to purchase a new one for $34 thanks to the recent transfer that I received from GiveDirectly. My eldest child is currently in school, and we had accumulated $10 in school fees arrears. The feeling of having overdue school fees troubles me. I was again lucky to settle the outstanding payments using the transfers. I then spent $24, which covered a bundle of maize and other household items that would last us a while. In addition to our household expenses, I invested $32 in buying a goat. My children have a passion for livestock rearing and I will also have something to sell in case of any financial emergencies. In the past, affording such animals felt beyond my reach, and it left me with a sense of financial limitation. I'm so happy, GiveDirectly transfers have improved my situation and restored my sense of dignity.

I am planning to buy a piece of land for me to farm and settle with. I live on my uncle's piece of land and farm on it. I would want to have my own piece of land which I can farm and call my own, as much as my uncle has been generous with his a man should have something of his own and that's why I am saving from my transfers and buying goats so they can reproduce and I can sell them to but the piece of land.

The drought had turned us to completely rely on buying food as the only was of providing nutrition to our families. As much as its rained now we are yet to harvest so that we can use our harvest for food so most of our cash transfers have been going into the purchase of food. In April I used $24 on food, in June I used a similar amount while in may I used only $4. I bought a goat in May and in June I spent $10 adding to my business

The current business I am doing is really progressing well and I pray that it constantly makes huge profit so that I can purchase a big land where I can build my own house and also start farming. I will plant things like maize, cabbages and kales and easily sell all my produce at my shop. I will also build my home because I am currently living in someone else's house and it gives me sleeplessness at night. The thought of not having your own house is not a very pleasing thought so to have that peace of mind, I will have to work hard and do my level best to get land, start building and have my own place.

The first time I started receiving my transfers I saved up to $60 and decided to start the shop that I am currently working on. I looked around and saw that most of my villagers were really struggling to go to town just to get something and it really was becoming so unbearable for them so I decided to bridge that gap by opening a shop at my village. The moment I opened my shop everyone was so happy that whenever they needed anything they could easily get it at their door post. The moment I received my transfers, I took $30 and added stock into my shop. I bought things like sugar, flour, cakes and many other things that we get in a normal shop. The remaining amount of $4 I paid for my child's school fees and it really made me thank God for pouring on me such a blessing of receiving unconditional transfers.

Over the last three months, I have used all my entire transfer to improve my food selling business. Before I started receiving funds from GiveDirectly, I used to earn a living through fishing. The rivers in which I have been doing the fishing have since dried up following prolonged droughts and I was forced to think of other ways of earning a living. GiveDirectly funds have been very instrumental in seeing me start up the food store. I have managed to channel all the $90 received over the last three months into this business. I am so happy that the business has gradually improved. Right now, I make up to $8 per day as profit and this has made life for us as a family quite enjoyable. I buy and sell dried up foodstuffs like cereals in a nearby centre. I am looking forward to making the business even better and raising the standards of living for my family. I am a father of three children with one of them already in school and two joining school soon. My desire and hope is to see my children go through school without so much problems like lack of school fees.

Upon receiving the transfers just recently, I decided to start my own business and opened up my own store. This is because I wanted to have a way of helping myself to sustain my family especially since I saw that the closest store around our area was about twenty five kilometres away and most times getting there was quite hard, that is why I opted to opening up a store. I used the entire funds I had received from the organisation which was KES 3,000 to purchase the items which included maize flour, sugar and tea leaves.

GiveDirectly is alleviating me from poverty. For instance, I now have goats. Plan to venture into livestock raring and the results will be that by the end of it all, I'll no longer be living in poverty.

I used both transfers to buy goats and pay school fees for my child. For the first transfer, KES 2700 was spent on purchasing one goat and the rest, KES 300, went to payment of school fees. The same for the second transfer, KES 2700 was spent on buying another goat and KES 300 on school fees payment for my child.

I was at home when I received the funds. I immediately shared the great news with my wife so together we agreed on purchasing a goat and paying the school fees for our child, to say the least, I felt very happy.

I used to leave in extreme poverty. Even the pride of owning a goat was unattainable. But when the funds from give directly came in, my life has really improved. I plan to keep up with this plan of purchasing goats as my target is to have at least 10. From this, I am certain they will multiply in number and I will be able to sell some and from the profit, I will purchase an acre of land. Where an acre sells at KES50,000. Therefore, there is a great difference in my life as I can now dream again.

I never owned any livestock in my compound before, so the first thing I did when I received the funds was to buy a goat that cost me KES2700. Since I have one child in school, who currently is in pp1, with a school fee arrears of KES500 I used the remaining KES300 to reduce the balance to KES200. This has been quite a challenge as my work as a fisherman only earns me KES1500 weekly. From it, I also have two other children and my wife who depend on my support.