I run a donut selling business to provide for my family's daily needs. However, my current capital is insufficient to generate significant revenue from this business. Nonetheless, I continue to support it as best as I can. On the other hand, my spouse burns and sells charcoal, but it doesn't earn much due to the scarcity of trees for making charcoal. My main focus at the moment is ensuring that my son completes his junior secondary school successfully. I also have four other children whose education I need to support. Thanks to the support from GiveDirectly, I can ensure that their school fees are paid on time while I work hard to provide for our basic needs. I have ten children, some of whom dropped out of school due to lack of school fees, but now I have five in school. I am dedicated to ensuring that those in school receive the best education. This is because I believe that education is the key to securing good jobs and supporting their families in the future, as well as supporting us as parents.

I want to express my gratitude to GiveDirectly for the financial assistance they have provided. I am a parent of ten children, some of whom had to drop out of school before GiveDirectly started operating in our area. My spouse and I rely on small-scale farming and sometimes sell charcoal to make ends meet. This has made it challenging to pay for our children's school fees. Before GiveDirectly's intervention, our children were frequently sent home from school due to unpaid fees. Currently, five of our children are in school, and I am determined to ensure they have a conducive environment to focus on their studies without the worry of being sent home for fees. GiveDirectly's support has significantly eased our financial burden, allowing us to pay our children's fees consistently, which has positively impacted their academic performance. The recent transfer of $102 was entirely used to pay their school fees.

I operate a donut selling business to earn a living for me to support my family's daily needs. However, my current capital is not enough to generate significant revenue from this business, but I still carry on and support it where I can. Currently, my focus is to ensure that my son can complete his college studies by the end of this year. Once he has finished his college education, I will then redirect a portion of my transfers to invest in livestock farming, specifically poultry farming, as well as to my business to boost my capital and increase the revenue to support my family. My aim is to buy chicken using the transfers I receive from GiveDirectly in the hopes that they will multiply and increase in number and value and be a good source of income. In the future, I plan to sell these chickens and use the proceeds to purchase goats, also with the expectation that they will multiply and increase in value, and I will sell them in the future, which will help me support my children's school fees and meet the needs of my family.

I am a mother of seven school-going children, with six in primary school and one in college pursuing a certificate course in mechanical engineering. This situation puts quite a strain on our family's finances considering the fact that we do not have a stable source of income besides the transfers I receive from GiveDirectlty. To ensure that my children can continue their studies without interruptions like being sent home to collect school fees, I opted to spend all of the $102 from my recent transfers to pay their school fees. My primary goal is to guarantee that my children receive the education they need to have a brighter future. I am truly grateful to GiveDirectly for the support they are providing to our family.

Looking ahead, my goal for this year is to establish a poultry business focused on raising chickens. However, I intend to pursue this goal only after ensuring that my children are stable and settled in school. I aspire to utilize subsequent transfers to realize this objective. Having an additional source of income will provide me with the means to comfortably pay my children's fees, offering me a profound sense of security and accomplishment. I cannot express enough gratitude for the assistance provided.

To support our family of eight, my husband and I engage in the laborious task of removing tree stumps and selling charcoal. Previously, affording school fees was a constant struggle, but thanks to the financial assistance provided by these transfers, our children can now attend school without any problem. Without these transfers, our children would have undoubtedly faced the risk of dropping out. Recognizing the importance of education, I utilized $34 to enroll my son in junior secondary school, ensuring he had the necessary supplies such as a bag, shoes, and books. Furthermore, I allocated $68 to enroll another son in college, where he will pursue a mechanical course. This not only covered his fees but also provided him with essential clothing. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to educate my children, as it is a life-changing experience for our family, instilling hope for a better future.

Currently, I have seven school-going children and a two-year-old infant. The educational journey for these children is still long, and my goal is to support them until they reach college. None of my family members have ever progressed beyond primary school in terms of education, and I aspire to break this cycle. One of my sons has recently completed his primary education, and I am hopeful that he will perform well enough to secure a spot in a secondary school. The cash transfers will primarily be directed towards covering their school fees as I aim to provide them with educational opportunities that extend beyond what my family has experienced before.

From the most recent cash transfer, I directed $14 towards settling the school fee debts of one of my children, who was almost sitting for final exams. This amount also covered the outstanding fees of his younger brother, ensuring that both could proceed with their education seamlessly. I am pleased that they were able to take their end-of-year exams without any disruptions due to unpaid tuition. Unfortunately, I also faced a health challenge during this period, experiencing an allergy that resulted in facial swelling. To address this, I utilized $20, supplemented by contributions from my family, to cover the associated medical expenses. I am now on the path to recovery and am grateful for the ability to engage in farming activities again. Without the cash transfers, affording the necessary medical care would have been a significant challenge, and for this, I am profoundly thankful.

I want to be financially secure. I'm looking forward to opening a small eatery in my village with the subsequent transfers I receive. This will provide me with daily income to sustain my family.

I am a mother of seven children who relies completely on small-scale farming to support my family. Given the limited rainfall this season, times have been difficult. We had meager yields as crops failed, and we barely had enough to eat. As a result, I used $40 to buy food for my family. I also spent $28 on seeds for planting. I aim to grow maize and other grains for food. I'm hoping that this would alleviate the stress of buying food on a daily basis. I used the remaining funds to pay my children's school fees, and I am relieved that I was able to do so.

Because of the past difficult experiences in raising school fees for my son, I had thought of looking for an opportunity to help me raise additional money. And for this year, I developed a goal of building my savings toward raising his school fees. Once he completes his O'level of study, I would wish to see him join secondary school. I believe he will be able to get good training that will prepare him for more opportunities in the future. Secondly, I have developed another goal of os starting a business. It will create an opportunity for me to have a steady cash flow.

Both my husband and I solely depend on charcoal making to support our family. As a result of the current famine situation witnessed in our county, we have been struggling even to feed our five-member family. Consequently, I could not pay off school fees for my son, Hasan. Currently, he is enrolled as a candidate in class eight. I, therefore, spent $10 to pay part of his school fees. In addition, I saved $10 to use later to meet part of his educational needs. I am always glad to hear that he does well in school, and I hope he succeeds. Since we did not have sufficient food, I spent $14 to acquire some, and I am grateful to GiveDirectly.

When I received my transfer, we had depleted foodstuff that I had stocked for the family. I was actually wondering what I could do to raise some money since all the casual jobs I was hoping to get were not forthcoming. That evening we had only two options, going to bed hungry or I had to borrow money to buy food. Fortunately, I received the transfer, and that saved us. I, therefore, used $10 to purchase maize flour while the remaining $20 went into paying school fees for my four school-going children. I am really appreciative of GiveDirectly.

GiveDirectly is definitely doing a great job because prior to my enrollment to the program, my kids would get kicked out of school and be home close to a fortnight while other students continued to learn. It made me completely sad but I lacked the finances which meant my hands were tied. Lucky enough though this organisation came to our area and now I can afford tuition fee.

Schools just recently resumed after being on holiday for over close to a month. When schools opened I sent my kids to school although I had not yet paid a dime in tuition fee because I had no money at the time. Two days before GiveDirectly sent me the transfers my four kids were kicked out of school because I had failed to pay the fees, so when I received the money I immediately paid KES 1,000 for all of them since I did not want them to keep staying home any longer. Then I went ahead to buy two hens since I wanted to invest in poultry farming and the hens cost me KES 700 for both of them. Lastly I used KES 810 and purchased six packets of maize flour since there was barely any food in the house and then finished the balanced of KES 190 I was left with and bought beans.

I had gone to check on my charcoal which was ready to be packed for sale. I was hopeful that I would at least sell one sack of charcoal to get some money for food. I met a neighbour who informed me that GiveDirectly had sent the transfers. Since I could not understand the messages in my phone, I called my helper who confirmed to me that it was true I had received my first transfer. I could not hold back the joy that I felt, now that I had enough money for a whole bale of maize flour.

Before receiving the transfer, taking three meals a day in my household was just a dream. I was selling charcoal once a week and the money could buy food for a day or two . I had to skip meals in order to save on the little money I had. I am grateful to GiveDirectly because after receiving the transfer, I purchased enough food that could last for weeks. My children were now enjoying three meals a day unlike before, which makes it to be the biggest difference in my daily life.

I am grateful to GiveDirectly because had I not received the transfer, it would have been difficult to provide food daily for my family. My main source of food was through engaging in subsistence farming which has not done well for almost a year. Drought has made it impossible for us to engage in farming. I had to buy food daily which is really expensive for me and I do not have any income to rely on. I am happy that my family can now enjoy three meals a day unlike before when I could skip meals because food was not enough.