My objective for the remainder of this year and beyond is to diligently save enough funds to construct a new house. Throughout this rainy season, I have faced challenges with a leaking roof that has unfortunately damaged some of my belongings. Additionally, the deteriorating condition of the house's support poles has heightened my concern, emphasizing the need for urgent action to prevent a potential collapse. To ensure I can achieve this goal, I consistently save each month in our local savings group. I am immensely grateful to GiveDirectly for their support, and I am optimistic that with their help, my dream of building a new house will soon become a reality.

My spouse and I rely on casual jobs for income—my spouse hawk toothbrushes, and I sells omena. With four school-going children, prioritizing their education is crucial, as education is widely acknowledged as the foundation for success. Therefore, I allocated $45 of my transfer to cover their school fees, ensuring they remain in school rather than being sent home for fee arrears. Additionally, our household was running low on food, prompting me to spend $3 to ensure we had enough to eat. With the remaining $27, I split the funds between savings for future emergencies and investing in a goat. I chose to invest in a goat because it offers the potential for multiplication, allowing me to sell its offspring in the future to support my children's education fees. This strategic investment helps secure a more stable financial future for my family.

I joined my local village savings group once the other members had already saved for a year. We have a village savings group of 12 members where we give $10 monthly. Each month a member is given 12 months worth of contribution. This is usually a significantly large amount of money which we would have otherwise not had. My house has fallen apart after years of being eaten into by termites. I have been unable to raise enough money to ensure we have a good house to live in. My being in the savings group will help me achieve this as I expect to get my cash next month. I plan to use this money to buy iron sheets and start building a new house for my family.

Most of the people who received Givedrectly transfers in our village formed village savings groups. I am a member of one myself. I contribute $10 monthly towards my portion every month which I did with my transfers for the last three months. Of my five school going children three are in their early years of education, the fees is not as high and so I used my transfers to pay for them, I used $10 in September and October to pay school fees for them. In September and October I bought chicken at $10 and $4 respectively while in November I used $20 to buy a goat. I had fallen ill in October and I sought treatment using the cash transfers at $10. In November the remaining $4 went into buying body oil and washing soap.

My objective for the remainder of this year and the future is to accumulate sufficient funds for constructing a new house. Throughout this rainy season, I have endured the challenges of dealing with a leaking roof, which has caused damage to some of my belongings. Additionally, I am concerned about the weak condition of the supporting poles, fearing that urgent action must be taken to prevent the imminent collapse of the house.

In our savings group, which was initiated with my colleagues, I managed to set aside $10 from my July transfers. The primary goal behind this saving endeavor is to accumulate enough funds to construct a new house. Currently, my existing house is in a deteriorated condition, with rusty and porous iron sheets that have numerous holes, making it uncomfortable during rainy periods due to the influx of cold air. By the end of the year, I anticipate having saved a sufficient amount to commence the construction of a new home for my family, consisting of eight members. Out of the funds, I also utilized $10 to clear school fee arrears for my two children, who are both students in primary school. This step was taken to ensure that their education continues with minimal disruptions. Moreover, I allocated $10 to purchase essential food supplies. The earnings generated from the sale of charcoal and the local toothbrushes sold by my husband are insufficient to cover our daily necessities. The recent transfer has been crucial in providing a consistent food supply, which was previously a challenge when we lacked adequate funds to purchase enough food. Lastly, with the remaining $4, I made the decision to invest in a hen. This investment serves the purpose of establishing an alternative income stream through buying and selling hens.

At the end of this year, I would hope to have completed one important goal. My home is in such bad shape that it's on the verge of collapse. The mud walls have developed large gaps that allow cool nighttime air to enter. The house is tilted to one side due to the flimsy building pillars supporting it. Every time it rains, the grass-thatched roof leaks severely, causing damage to my possessions and keeping me awake at night. Prior to the year's end, I intend to construct a new home.

The family's sole provider of income is my husband. He makes a livelihood selling native toothbrushes made from a tree used for medicine. My husband has found selling the toothbrushes to be a very challenging job because most of his customers now want to use modern toothbrushes and very few choose to purchase local ones. My two elementary-aged children have suffered greatly as a result of our family's financial difficulties because they are frequently sent home from school. As a result, I paid $10 in back school fees when I received my transfer in March so that my children could return to class and finish their education. In addition, I put $10 in savings accounts so that it may grow and I could receive a loan, which I will use to buy building supplies for my house. I finally spent $10 on food that I purchased in bulk. We must buy food in bulk to save money and obtain enormous quantities of the stuff because food prices have risen. I'm relieved that the money from the transfer gave me a significant boost during my difficult moments when I was unable to buy meals because of a lack of money.

Am grateful to Give Directly because I can now afford things that once proved difficult to access for lacking funds. Sending money to people living in poverty like myself is the greatest job the company could ever have. The cash transfers have rekindled my hopes of reviving my business and supporting the education of my children even to tertiary levels. In this spirit, it is hard to pinpoint any fault in Give Directly's work.

These past few months have been tough especially after I paused my business of selling dried sardines to take care of my husband who fell ill in June. Financial constraints have weighed on us more than before, with school fees staying unpaid for an entire academic term. Three of my kids constantly missed most classes over the last three months because I could not afford to clear their tuition debt of $10. Hence, I prioritized settling the deficit when I received the transfer and they gladly resumed classes. After that, I saved $10 through a self-help group that I joined two years ago. The aim is to continue saving the same amount monthly and accumulate enough funds for my children’s school fees come next year. Also, I was happy to finally afford a hen worth $5 after trying to replace the ones that perished months ago from pox disease. Lastly, I spent the rest on food as my household had run out of maize flour that afternoon with no means to replenish it. 

It was in the morning while on my normal errands. As a charcoal burner, had gone to look for wood in the nearby forest. As I took a break to read the message, which had interrupted my exercise of collecting wood with its notification sound. I was thrilled with the amount received in my Mpesa account. I was extremely excited because I was not expecting any cash. My mind was puzzled earlier that morning because we had run out of food and my children were all sent home because of the school fees' balance. I immediately left in a haste to withdraw the cash and planned to complete my charcoal burning exercise the next day.

The transfer has brought a big difference in my life and that of my family. This is because it has uplifted our living standards to a level that I never thought we were going to reach soon. I have my children attend their classes undisrupted due to school fees and that’s because the teachers understand how the program operates, hence agree to have me pay my outstanding fee in installments.

I am married with five children; my husband works as a hawker selling local toothbrushes (sourced from twigs). I also work as a charcoal burner and depend on selling charcoal. My husband has been struggling and makes as little as $2 occasionally, which is not enough for our basic needs like food. My children have been in and out of school because of the current debt and sometimes it has been worse for us to have nothing to eat. When I received my cash transfer of $12, I used $5 to pay for school fees, and $4 was used to buy two chicks. The remaining cash was enough to buy us 3kg of maize flour, which would last us to make a meal for two days.