My wife was not feeling well and recently, she had surgery. Currently, my priority is to continue supporting her in every way possible, especially with food and anything else she needs, so that she can fully recover and get back on her feet. To achieve this, I plan to send her a portion of my transfers regularly, ensuring she has the resources to take care of herself until she is well again. In addition, I am determined to plan for our future. I intend to save at least $20 from my future transfers from GiveDirectly, which I will use to help start a small shop for my wife. This shop will not only keep her busy but also provide a source of income that will help support our family in the long run. Also, I am currently enrolled in a mechanic course, and my focus is on completing it successfully. Once I finish this course, I hope to be able to secure a job, which will allow me to contribute more financially and provide even more support for my family. I am deeply grateful for the assistance I have received. This support has given me the opportunity to work toward a better future for my wife, myself, and our family. I am filled with hope and determination to make the most of the opportunities ahead.

The transfers from GiveDirectly came at a critical moment when my wife was unwell and had just undergone surgery. I was faced with medical bills that needed to be paid, and I am deeply thankful for the timing of this support. I used $30 of my recent transfers to cover the medical expenses, and I am relieved to say that she is now recovering. Although not fully healed, She is definitely in better condition than she was before. In addition to her recovery, I wanted to make sure my family was well taken care of. I sent $25 to my wife, who had gone back to her parents' home after the surgery so she could have someone to take care of her while I am away so that she could buy food for herself and her family as she stayed there. I also sent $15 to my mother to help support her with food, ensuring that she would not go hungry. With the remaining $32 of my transfers, I used the money to support myself. This helped cover my food, transportation, and living expenses, allowing me to survive and continue with my learning without additional worry. I am truly grateful for the support I have received. It has made a huge difference in my life, helping me take care of my health, my family, and my basic needs. This assistance has been a lifeline, and I am filled with gratitude for GiveDirectly’s help during such a challenging time.

Initially, I planned to invest my transfers in paying for a plumbing course that I was eager to take. However, due to the high cost, I decided to pursue a driving course instead, which my brother generously offered to pay for. As a result, I have now shifted my focus away from the plumbing course. In the coming year and beyond, I am planning to set up a shop business. With a wife and one child to provide for, I needed an investment that would last and support my family even after the transfers end. This led me to choose a shop business. To achieve this goal, I am saving $20 every month to ensure I raise enough capital to establish this project. I believe this will be a financial breakthrough once I establish it.

I want to maximize saving part of my monthly transfers because I intend to open a shop business. Currently, I am working as a motorbike taxi driver, paying part of my daily income to the owner of the motorbike since I do not have my own. I believe that once I start my own shop business, I will be able to raise a good profit. To achieve this, I joined a chama where I contribute $20 every month. When I received my most recent transfer, I saved $60 towards my goal of opening my dream shop next year. With the remaining $42, I bought food for my family, as I have a wife and one child. It was wise to stock up on food for family consumption while I continue working to provide for my family.

In the coming year and beyond, I don't have any specific goals but to save the little income I get from casual jobs that I do at home. Additionally, I save a part of my monthly income, around $20, to put towards paying my college fees. I am really dedicated to pursuing a plumbing course. Currently, my parents are peasant farmers and they can't afford the $600 needed to send me to college. This means I have to work very hard to find ways to join college. I am passionate about this course, and it's not as costly compared to other courses. I also like the idea of being self-employed after completing my studies. I believe I can sell my skills through good work. I am optimistic that with support from Give Directly, I will achieve my dream of supporting my parents and myself in the future.

When I received my most recent transfers, I saved part of my monthly contribution of $60. I intend to use this savings to fund my college education. I am passionate about plumbing and I am considering pursuing it as a career. I haven't identified a specific college yet, but I have inquired about the total fees and I was told it costs around $600. I believe plumbing is a good choice for me because it is a passion and it is also a career that can lead to self-employment once I am trained. Additionally, the cost of training for plumbing is relatively affordable, which makes it even more appealing. I want to invest in this career because it will enable me to earn a living and support my family. With the remaining $42, I spent it on buying food for family consumption, just to ensure that we have stock of maize flour to push us for a bit longer.

As I said I have a dream of putting up a business selling daily use retail items. My target is to have $500 to start the business and I have so far $210 and still saving towards my goal. My estimate is that I will be able to begin the business next year. I had always wanted to go to college but the lose of my father in 2015 leaving my mother a single mother with four children. She is a farmer and hence never made much to have enough to take us through college. I also married but I live with my wife in my mothers house which I would want to change. I hope through this business I will afford money to go study and become a plumber as well as put up a house for me and my wife.

Since July of last year my spending seem to be similar for all months. I started saving $30 monthly while I spent $4 which has been the case till this month. I decided to start saving towards a business after getting the idea. I now work in a butchery in the neighbouring town to home which is still far from my home and my employer was gracious enough to provide my accommodation and so I do not have to save towards getting rent. I get paid about $2 which I will use to cover my food for the day as well as save $0.5 cents daily. My wife who I also recently married got a job as a shopkeeper and this gives her an amount to take care of her needs. This is what made me comfortable enough to save towards my business idea.

I am in the process of enrolling in a driving school, my main goal is to be employed as a driver. My cousin has offered me a job opportunity once I obtain my driver's license. Additionally, I plan to open a shop conveniently located near my former school, as the closest shop was quite a distance away.

I'm so grateful to Givedirectly, the transfers have enabled me to complete my high school education successfully, a fact that brings me great happiness. I have been paying school fees with the transfers. My sole source of support had been my mother since my father's passing on eight years ago. she would struggle to generates income through livestock and poultry farming to assist us but it would not be enough to meet my brother and I school requirements. Last month I contributed $20, a potion of the transfers to our merry-go-round group of twelve members. When my turn comes, I will have accumulated $240 which I will use to cover my college fees. I will also support my younger brother by paying for his trainings. I then bought my personal items with the remaining $14.

I have been planning to join college. Therefore, I hope to accomplish this by saving most of the monthly transfers. When that savings build up, raising my college fee will be easy. I opted for this because my mother is often overwhelmed to take care of the family. She is a jobless widow who over-rely on burning charcoal to feed her children. We have been living in hardship since my father died in 2005. Once I manage to attain a college education, I will be able to have skills that can help me acquire a job and work to improve the living standard of my mother and my siblings.

I completed my O'level last year, and I hope to join college this year. From my recent transfer, I set aside $20 to help me build savings toward my school fee. I have been longing to enroll in a civil engineering course to learn skills that would make it easier to get a job and support my family. I intend to use the remainder for daily upkeep. I have seen my way of life improving because of the monthly transfers. For instance, I have purchased some decent clothes during the last three months. What has improved my grooming since I did not have any nice clothes before.

Since I was still in high school when I joined the program, the majority of the transfers went toward my tuition. Therefore, $51 of the transfers during the past three months contributed to lowering the amount I owed the school in arrears. Because she raises chickens on a small scale for a living, my mother does not make a lot of money from it. Therefore, we rely on my two brothers whose occupation is to install electricity. They couldn't entirely pay the school fees on time because they also have families to support. Additionally, even though I was in school, I was unable to buy quality clothing because I had no other means of support. I'm happy to say that the organization has provided me with a couple of good ones right now. This is due to the fact that I spent $51 on new clothing and shoes. By the time I start college, we won't need to budget for new clothing. I am appreciative of the assistance given because, thanks to it, we were able to decrease the arrears on my school fees to the current, manageable amount of $20. I'm hoping to finish it with some of next month's transfers as I will be collecting my high school certificate from the institution.

In my opinion, what GiveDirectly is doing is giving out cash transfers without any condition tied to it. Imagine if I was restricted on how to spend the transfer, I wouldn't be able to educate myself, and maybe I would drop out of school in form 4. This has not only brought a change in my life but also reduced the family burden as the money that would be spent on my education is now being used somewhere else. I also like the individual enrollment, provide one had an ID and is 8 years and above, they received the transfers. I haven't seen any area of improvement so far.

I am currently a form 4 student at Mnazimwenga secondary school. I am the third born in a family of 4 children. I stay with my mother who is currently jobless and we have been surviving at the mercy of my elder brother who is a mechanic as he too struggles to make ends meet for his family. I was so elated to be enrolled in GiveDirectly program as it marked a new beginning in my life. I have been struggling to pay my own school fees, this was after my father passed on in 2005, something that delayed my studies. Being raised by a single mother, I decided to use my recent transfer to reduce my fees arrears by $20 while the remaining $ 10 I spent on my personal items such as clothes and pocket money. Paying the fees helped reduced the amount from $ 97 to $ 79. This has made me stressed-free from being sent back home for fees hence increased in my concentration while in class. I am so grateful for the GiveDirectly support. 

It was on a Friday at 4.04 p.m. when I had just come from school and received a message alert. When I checked my phone and found I had received the money from GiveDirectly, I felt so happy and confident because I knew I would at least settle a portion of my fee arrears.

Settling part of my school fees is my biggest difference because I managed to stay in school without disruption. In addition, it accorded me ample time at school for studies leading to my improved performance and peace of mind. I thank GiveDirectly for considering me as one of the beneficiaries of its unconditional cash transfer program.

I am a secondary school student currently in form four. I am the third born in a family of four and live with my younger brother. My father died some years ago leaving our mother and my elder brother as the family’s providers. In most cases, we depend on my elder brother who works as a mechanic in Mombasa. He is the one who pays my school fees with the help of my mother. Paying school fees has always been a great challenge because my elder brother has got other responsibilities as paying school fees for his daughter in primary school and fending for his family. I had fee arrears of KES 9900 and was required to settle part of it to continue learning. To ensure I was never sent home from school to collect money for school fees, I topped up my transfers with KES 2000 my brother sent me and paid school fees. I saved the remaining KES 200 I intend to use as pocket money when school re-opens.