I am a mother of five children, but I have been facing a significant challenge in providing them with proper shelter. Every evening, my children are forced to seek shelter with relatives, which has been incredibly stressful for me as a parent. The house we currently live in has only one room that serves as our kitchen and sleeping space. To address this issue, I decided to join a savings group, where I contribute $20 each month with the goal of building a new home for my children. One of my sisters-in-law has also promised to support me by purchasing some of the building materials, which gives me hope of fulfilling this dream. So far, I have managed to acquire 12 iron sheets, which is a good start, and I am optimistic that this project will be completed soon. Once I achieve this dream, I will no longer have to worry about my children’s safety. It will also restore my respect and dignity as a parent, as I have often felt like I have failed my children.

The issue of housing has been a constant source of stress for me. My children are forced to seek shelter at my relatives' houses every evening, a situation that has weighed heavily on my mind. I have always dreamed of living under one roof with all my children. Currently, my house has only one room, which we also use as a kitchen. You can imagine the smoke and discomfort we endure daily. To address this challenge, I joined a savings group in my community. Over the past three months, I have managed to save a total of $80 to use this money to build a new, spacious house for my children. This new home will not only restore my pride and dignity as a parent but also provide my children with the protection, privacy, and guidance they need to grow with good morals. Being close to them is crucial for their upbringing. In addition to saving for the house, I used $4 to boost my small mandazi business. I am glad that my earnings have slightly increased compared to what I used to make before. With $18, I also stocked up on food for my household. Food insecurity has been a persistent issue for us, especially since we have not been able to rely on our farm due to the prolonged droughts.

I have a one roomed house that serves both as our kitchen and our living and sleeping area. I have 5 children which makes it very hard to all sleep in this house and we end up asking for places for them to sleep from our neighbours. I do not like being a bother but building a house is an expensive affair. My hope is to ensure that I am able to build an additional house to house my entire family and this savings group will play a big part in meeting this goal.

Receiving cash transfers from Givedirectly has really changed my life. I got into village savings group and a local sacco after getting into the Givedirectly program. I knew that with my small earnings from my food business I would be able to take care of my family and that would mean I could save and do projects that I would be unable to do with my earnings. I have in the recent times saved $50 to this different avenues. I also fell ill during the last month and sort treatment where I used $34 to get checked. I also spent $10 paying school fees for my children.

In the upcoming year and beyond, my primary goal is to build a house for my children. Currently, they reside at a relative's house, where they often face criticism. To realize this aspiration, I've begun setting aside a portion of my transfers towards this objective. Considering my resources, I plan to construct a single-room dwelling, as that's within my means. My target is to accumulate approximately $300 to achieve this goal. By diligently saving and focusing on this endeavor, I aim to provide my children with a secure and comfortable home of their own.

Life was quite challenging before receiving assistance from GiveDirectly, as our livelihood depended solely on farming to support my five children. However, with the financial transfers from GD, life has become more manageable, allowing me to provide for my family with greater ease. Upon receiving my latest transfer, I allocated $90 towards my merry-go-round savings, aiming to build a house for my children. Currently, my children sleep at a relative's house, where they sometimes face criticism. This motivates me to work harder towards ensuring they have their own comfortable space where they can sleep without feeling judged or intimidated. Additionally, I used $1,200 for food expenses to ensure our basic needs are met.

As I said earlier my house is a one roomed house that is not sufficient for me and my children. My children sleep in their uncles house who stays in the city. My goal is to add another house to the house which we own for my children. I have already finished buying iron sheets but now my concern is on building poles. I plan to use my savings in the sacco and merry go round to buy the building poles then negotiate with the mason on his charges before I can start building and I am hoping through this transfers I am able to achieve this goal.

I have five children and myself living under my one roomed house. It has been my goal to add another house for the children. I have been buying iron sheets which I got two in November each going for $11, I now stand at 14 iron sheets bought since I haven't added any since that time. I am saving towards buying building poles. I joined a merry go round where I make a monthly contribution of $10 which I have made in November and January. In December due to the festivities I bought my children clothes, I have three bots who I got pants and shirts for, the pants going for $9 each and the shirts $4 I added some amount to this from my business and got all of them clothes. I am also pat of a sacco where I sent $20 in January and used the remaining $4 on sugar.

I am determined to build a bigger house for my family since our current one is too small. I sell chapati and madazi every morning, saving diligently for this project. Thanks to GiveDirectly, I have already purchased five metal sheets, and I am getting closer to making my dream home a reality.

Living with my five children in our small house has become quite uncomfortable. To address this, I am embarking on an exciting journey to build our own dream home. I have started by investing $14 in metal sheets for my house construction project. The remaining amount of $20, I took it to my merry-go-round savings to save for my future needs.

I sell wheat pastries which is my primary source of income. I sometimes get some money from my husband who hawks items at Mombasa for a living. He doesn't always get purchases and this means his income is not as steady. we have five children of whom 4 are in school. Our children do not have somewhere to sleep as our one room house is quite small. They are most times forced to sleep at their grandparents house. I would love to build a house for them so that they are no longer begging for a place to sleep from their grandparents all the time. I have about $10 in savings and am still saving in our local saving group and once I have sufficient enough and my husband has a sufficient amount we will build. However if we do not have a sufficient amount by the time the year ends or my husband does not supplement my savings I will purchase an Ox that will cost much less for hiring out during the planting season.

I had a child joining Junior high when I received my March transfers I used $12 to buy his uniform, I spent $7 of my transfer on shoes for him, I also got him a bag at $6. the rest of the money left went into buying food which was $9 to buy maize flour. I also spent $24 in April for flour and $4 in May. I have about 2 acres allocated for farming for me and my husband although our land has not been subdivided, I spent $24 hiring ox to plough my land and I bought maize and black eyed pea seeds at $6 for planting once the land was ploughed. I joined a local savings group and in April I sent $10 of my transfer to cover my contribution.

My aim is to set aside some cash each month and purchase two breeding cows by the end of the year. They grow more quickly, and after a year I may sell some of them to make money to buy more, as well as utilize some of the proceeds to help pay for the building supplies needed to build a house for my kids. Since our house just has one room, there isn't enough room for everyone to sleep comfortably. They presently sleep at my neighbor's house, but I don't feel comfortable with the situation because I can't keep an eye on them when they are far away. Additionally, it is dangerous for them to walk at night.

Our family of seven includes my spouse and our five children. While my spouse Hawks snacks in the community, I sell fruits. We struggle to meet the demands of our family because I make a meager $2 per day from my business while my husband makes less. I have been setting up $10 per month in order to accumulate enough cash to buy a cow, which will increase our household income. When the cow gives birth, we will not only receive milk but also a new cow. Thus, in the future, we will be able to sell some of the young ones to raise funds for our kids' school expenses. When I recently received my transfers, schools had already resumed again, so I spent $24 on school supplies for my kids to use in the upcoming academic year. Other than that, the majority of the kids' clothes were worn out and unattractive, so I spent $24 on new ones for them. We bought meals for the family with the $24 I had left. We are appreciative of the transfers because they boost our household's income and make it easier for us to meet our demands.

Life has been unbearable in our area due to the absence of rain. I appreciate GiveDirectly for considering me for their cash transfer program that has helped transform my life. Through the transfers, I have been able to buy a tank that I use to store water thereby saving us from the struggle of frequently walking longer distances to fetch. I have so far seen nothing wrong with the program as its positive impacts in our lives speak for itself.

I am a mother of five doing business for livelihood. I also burn and sell charcoal while my husband is a small-scale business owner. I am in a merry-go-round group comprising five people where we each contribute KES 1000 for saving. I have four children in primary school whom my husband pays school fees for. The biggest challenge we experience is an inability to afford decent meals and clean water due to our unsustainable income. Using the transfers I received, I bought a tank for KES 1400 to store water. Buying the tank has since enabled us to save enough water for consumption. We no longer frequent the borehole that is always far away from our home to fetch water. This has helped reduce our stress of accessing clean water making us enjoy great peace of mind. I also bought food worth KES 12000 and three pairs of shoes for my kids for KES 450.

I was at home attending to my business around 7.00 p.m. when I received the notification message. I was wondering where the money came from because I was not expecting some money. Fortunately, a friend of mine who had come to buy charcoal confirmed that she had also received the transfer, and that was when I recalled that GiveDirectly had promised to send us some transfers. This news made me feel excited.

The biggest difference is that the transfers made it easy for me to balance how to cater to our family's basic needs. We did not have enough food in the house, and my kids' shoes had worn out. I spent the money to buy enough food that made us enjoy balanced diets. I also bought shoes enabling our kids to dress decently. I thank GiveDirectly for the timely support.

I am a small-scale business owner with a family of seven. Out of my five kids, four are school-going while the lastborn is still at home because he has not attained the school-going age. My kids' shoes had worn out, we ran out of food, and I had no idea where I would get money to attend to these essential needs. My business had not been doing so well, and at the same time, my husband's income could not fully cater to our basic needs. I thank GiveDirectly for coming to my aid when I required their support the most. When I received the GiveDirectly transfer, I used a portion of it to buy three pairs of shoes at KES 150 for my three kids and also bought food worth KES 750. We had no food and could not afford to buy shoes for our kids.