The transfers I have been receiving gave me an opportunity to join a merry-go-round where I was able to save a little amount each month. When my turn came at the merry-go-round, I managed to purchase most household items that I did not have before such as a bed, chairs and some utensils using the moeny I received. Throughout the entire period that I have been receiving the transfers, I have not had any challenges paying for my child's school fees as I did before which was the reason he would mostly be sent home from school.

I have been working as an attendant at an electrical shop for four years now. I have a lot of experience regarding the products sold here and where to get them at a cheaper price and how much profits they can earn. With all this experience, I know that I can manage to successfully run my own business if I can set it up. I have been saving towards starting a similar business before the project ends and I am very certain that my life will be better from there. My main goal at the moment is to keep saving so that I can raise enough money to set up a similar business before the project ends.

Since the amount I last received from Give Directly came around the time when we were celebrating the Christmas Holidays, I spent the whole amount on foodstuff and drinks for the enjoyment of my family. I had never been able to afford such kind of a celebration before due to my low salary and I thought that it would be nice doing things differently now that we could, courtesy of Give Directly.

My life is different from how it was in that, I was able to meet most of my goals. I have managed to buy most of the household items such as seats, cupboards, and beds which I could not have bought by now. I used to fully depend on my salary. My salary could cater to the daily basic needs although it could not be enough to buy these items at once. There are several other goals that I don't think I would attain if I only depended on my salary.

My new goal is to start a business. I want to open a hotel. I believe it is the best business so far because people have to eat every day. I know of people who did this business and are now successful. With time I believe that the business will do well. I now have hopes of not depending on casual jobs anymore. I will be self-employed which is more convenient and pays better compared to the casual jobs.

I spent part of my transfer to pay school fees for my child. I feel good because I have fully offset the fee arrears. I did this because I did not want my child's report card to be held back in school. I don't want to disappoint my child in any way. Apart from that, I was also able to save enough money hoping to buy a digital television because currently, I have the outdated version and I have to incur the cost of paying a few coins to get access to the programs which is expensive. I know that once I get a smart TV, I won't be forced to pay for the monthly subscriptions in order to get access to the local channels.

Previously I used to live on hand to mouth income and in most cases, I lived on debts because my monthly income couldn't sustain me for a whole month. I have to admit that my life is currently different from the way it would have been had I not received the transfers because currently, I can manage to meet my needs on time and save a lot of money.

I do not have a lot of household items like furniture and I couldn't afford them because I didn't have enough income to purchase them. This forced me to sit on the ground which is not good for my health because of the cold weather. I, therefore, have a new goal of using part of the transfers I will be receiving from GD to purchase these items.

Currently, I'm employed but the income I earn from it isn't enough to meet my needs and at the same time, whatever I earn from that place doesn't match the time consumed the current employer consumes. I, therefore need to start up a business so that I quit the current job. In order to achieve this, I have been saving part of the transfers including the recent transfer so that I can use it in the future to start up a cereal business. In addition to that, I owed a friend some money so I used part of the recent to pay for the loan and bought food with a portion of the money.

My goal is to become self-employed and to run my own business with less pressure that comes with self-employment, unlike being employed. I also hope that my business will grow to be successful to improve my living standards.

The biggest difference in my daily life is that I now have some extra money to save for a business, as I now receive the transfers to boost and supplement my income

I spent part of my most recent transfers to meet my daily needs such as meals, while the rest I saved in a fixed bank account for a future business venture. I save 3000 KES every month with the hope of raising about 50000 KES for a fruit and grocery business. I hope to begin a fruit and grocer shop in my neighborhood in Mathare 3A village. I am currently employed as a shop assistant in the Central Business District whereby I sell electrical accessories. I have been employed here for the past four years. I would like to start my own business because employment can be unreliable and one can get sacked anytime. I hope to raise enough money soon so I can begin this business.

It was at 5:00 AM in the morning and I was still asleep. I heard a message come into my phone and I woke up to check the message. I saw the Mpesa message and I was really happy. I started thinking of how I would spend the money.