As I am in my final year of secondary education, my top priority is ensuring the timely payment of my school fees to avoid any disruptions to my studies and overall performance. The total amount I need to pay for the year is $150, but since I only allocate $20 of my monthly transfers towards the fee, it will take me around 8 months to clear the fees completely. Once I have cleared my school fees, my plan is to start investing in poultry. Poultry farming is affordable, easy to manage, and the birds multiply quickly. My goal is to start building assets that I can leverage when the time comes for me to join university, allowing me to raise the required fees more easily.

As a high school student, my transfers play a significant role in covering my school fees, easing the burden on my parents who have low income and also have the burden of my 5 younger siblings who are all in school. I typically allocate $20 of the transfers for this purpose, ensuring my school expenses are taken care of. The remaining amount is used to acquire any additional school supplies I may need, as well as to support my younger siblings who are also in school by contributing towards their fees. It is a fulfilling experience to be able to help alleviate my parents' financial strain while also meeting my own educational needs. Knowing that I am fully supported in school and have all the necessary requirements taken care of, I am glad to use part of the transfers to ensure my siblings can stay in school too and have access to some of their school necessities.

I will be finishing my secondary school education this year. I needed to have a ball in motion to ensure that I could go further that high school education. This is why I am buying chicken while making savings in the informal savings group. I would want to have more than 15 chicken and be able to grow them for sale. I would want to be a good farmer, being able to have a large flock that is healthy and is earning me an income. I also started a small grocery stall which I hope to build using this cash transfers.

I am a secondary school student currently in form four, this is my last year in secondary school. My education is very important to me and I have see the transfers help me with ensuring my school fees are being paid. In July $20 of my transfers went into ensuring my school fees balances are reduced, I further reduced them in august by $13. I am also a passionate chicken farmer, I have been using this cash transfers to buy chicken, I bought 5 chicken in July at $2 each for $10 and 2 chicken in August at $4 and I also got chicken feed worth $3 in July. I felt it prudent to set aside $4 in September to buy supplements and medicine for the chicken since the animals need to be in good health to ensure they are not wiped out by disease. I have also started a small vegetable stall in September using $15 of my transfers. I am also now a member of an informal savings group where I save $15 monthly.

I wanted to venture into a projects that would help me generate income in the future so that when I am done with my secondary education, I would have something to reap from and therefore my main goal was to start off with a poultry rearing project. I plan to be using part of my monthly transfers on buying at least 5 chicks every month and later sell some of them to get the capital for opening a retail shop with a variety of foodstuffs, a business that would be of great help in terms of supporting my family.

I wanted to venture into a project that would help me generate income in the future so that when the project comes to a halt, I shall have something to reap from and therefore, I decide to settle into poultry keeping and the transfers that I have been receiving had played a great part of it in starting off the project. In addition, I am currently a Form Three student and I have been relying on the support from my brother and the odd jobs that I engage in for school fees owing to the fact that my parents do not have a source of income, but GiveDireclty transfers had also been of great support. I had a school fees balance that I have been struggling to reduce since last year, though it had never been easy. But with the transfers that I recently received, I managed to pay $14 in school, bought 4 chicks worth $10, and also transferred $10 to my savings group for my future and emergency needs. I am forever grateful for the support.

Since I got enrolled in the program, my focus has been to pay my school fees so that I can have ample time in school to focus on my study. However, apart from paying off all the accumulated fee areas with part of the GD transfers, I have developed a goal of saving towards raising livestock. Livestock keeping is a viable investment because they demand less attention. Once they grow, mature up, and increase in number, I shall sell some to raise money for other personal development, such as diversifying farming practices, livestock keeping, and crop farming.

I am the second born of seven siblings, and I am currently a high school student. My educational journey has been hampered by difficulties since my parents are underprivileged and heavily rely on physically demanding work to support the family, such as making and selling charcoal. They have always shouldered a heavy burden, making it impossible for them to take my old brother to high school. I spent $30 of my most recent transfer to settle previous fees. Similarly, the transfers I received during the last three months before the most recent transfer also assisted me in covering a portion of my tuition. I am glad courtesy of the transfer, I am hopeful I shall complete my O-level education.

I am the second born into a family of seven children. My mother works as a charcoal burner and my father is a casual laborer in the village. It has been a struggle for the family because of the lack of jobs, which is worse at the moment because of the prolonged drought. I have been in and out of school because of the outstanding school fees, and so are my siblings. Since I got enrolled in the program, all my transfer has been used to pay my school fees and buying of building materials. My recent transfer of $15 was spent on paying my school fees and the rest of $12 bought two pieces of iron sheet, the remaining $3 bought one chicken. I am grateful because my parents cannot afford my school fees and these funds have assisted me in being in class and also buying building materials to build my house.

I commend the organisation for the great work it has been doing because my day to day life has completely taken a turn for best. In the past I would get kicked out of school and stay home close to a month because of finances and also because my parents could not afford it. But now through the funds, I have lessened the financial strain because I personally use the funds I receive to pay for my education meanwhile my folks find other means and look after the basic needs of my siblings including education.

I had home for over a week without attending classes because I had been kicked out of school due to lack if payment in school fees. Therefore when I received the money I instantly went on to pay school fees using KES 2,000 so that I would be allowed back to class and then used KES 500 to purchase stationery that I needed back in school. Afterwards I was left with KES 500 and I decided to use KES 200 to buy a hen since I wanted to invest in poultry farming and I owned two hens already. Poultry farming was going to help me get more finances to help me sort out my debts on tuition fee because I had five other siblings who were in school and my parents were having a hard time making ends meet as it is. As for what I remained with which was KES 300, I bought two packets of maize flour with it because going hungry was the norm back home due to lack of finances which led to poor nutrition.

Reveiving the funds from GiveDirectly came as a huge pleasant surprise as things at home had been quite heavy. I had attended a funeral of a neighbour and had left my phone at home. On reaching the house and checking the phone, I saw the alert and my joy could not be explained. I was so happy and I gave thanks to the Almighty as we could now take in something as a family and not stay hungry again. I kept the MPESA balance intact until the following day when I withdrew the funds.

The greatest impact made was that I was able to buy food for the family to last us for a week and keep us going atleast. I was also able to clear some fee balance in school which is a welcome relief to help out where I can.

Getting through life has been tougher than thought of. I am the second child in a family of eight children. Mum and dad are both around, though mum is the breadwinner at home since dad has no job. He spends time grazing and taking care of the livestock. Mum on the other hand, sells charcoal whereby she tries to save some of the proceeds for food which is usually quite rare to come by. The KES 1200 received from GiveDirectly really impacted life positively as I was able to help mum out where I could. When schools open, I am supposed to report as a form two student but with a high school fee balance of KES 17000 from last term, this would be difficult hence I saved KES 900 to atleast clear part of it. KES 300 which was the remaining balance, I bought maize flour which we use in the house so that we get something to feed our stomachs and not sleep hungry as we had three days ago.