While my primary focus remains on providing my children with quality education by ensuring their school requirements are promptly met, I am also aware of the cultural and economic significance of livestock ownership in our community. Despite my age, I am disheartened by the absence of livestock in my possession, as it is traditionally regarded as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. To address this, I plan to start with chickens since they are the most affordable option for me. I will rear them and then sell them once I have a good number, using the proceeds to eventually buy a goat. I will continue this process until I can afford to purchase a cow. While my children's education is a significant achievement made possible by this project, owning a cow at the end of it would also be a valuable investment in my eyes.

The transfers I receive are incredibly important for ensuring that my children can consistently attend school. They allow me to promptly pay their school fees and provide for their educational needs, which would be difficult with just my modest income from tapping and selling palm wine. To keep up with the required fees, I make sure to set aside a larger portion of my transfers, totaling $30 each month, specifically for school payments. This is because I have four children in school, two of whom are in junior high school and require at least $15 each per month for fees. Once I have covered the fees, whatever is left from the transfers goes towards basic household needs or sometimes a small investment, like buying a chicken. Through these transfers, I have managed to accumulate 8 chickens so far. My plan is to sell them once they mature and use the proceeds to buy a goat, as I do not have the means to raise the money from other sources.

I used to run a small kiosk, where I sold essential items, but I was compelled to close it down due to my inability to restock. My primary objective now is to revive this business, aiming to broaden my sources of income. Relying solely on the palm wine business is no longer sufficient to support my family's needs. I plan to utilize the transfers from the next two months to kickstart this venture. The prospect of having multiple streams of income brings me comfort, as it ensures the well-being of my family's needs and instills hope for the future.

I sustain my livelihood by tapping and selling palm wine, although the profits from this endeavor are scarcely sufficient to support my family of ten. In the past, life was a constant struggle, which unfortunately resulted in two of my children being unable to proceed to secondary school due to my inability to cover their fees. However, I am overjoyed that, thanks to these transfers, I can now comfortably afford to pay for the school fees of the remaining children. Out of the transfers sent, I allocated $64 to settle a pending school fee debt that had accrued over time. This will ensure that my children can continue their education without hindrance. The remaining $38 was dedicated to purchasing food and essential household items that we urgently required. I am profoundly grateful to GiveDirectly for providing me with the opportunity to educate my children, and I am hopeful about their prospects for furthering their education in secondary school.

Despite the financial constraints that led to the closure of my previous business, I am now poised to embark on a new entrepreneurial journey. Armed with lessons learned, I will leverage my strengths and passions to uncover promising opportunities. Through thorough research, strategic planning, I want to open a big shop near my home to be selling to my villagers. I want to really work hard on my farm and sell my produce in order to have enough to start my business. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for making me believe and work towards my goals. Without the transfer it will be difficult to even think of a goal but now it's easy.

Utilizing my transfers wisely, I prioritized my children's education by allocating $12 to cover their school fees. With the responsibility of providing nourishment for my family, I dedicated $20 towards purchasing essential food items. Making the most of the remaining $2, I wisely invested it in acquiring oil, ensuring our meals would be cooked to perfection. Thank you so much GiveDirectly for everything I sincerely do appreciate it.

I previously owned a green grocery store, but due to the prolonged drought in the area, I had nothing to sell and therefore I had to close down the business. My goal is to revive the business because I have reached a fixed point of not being to be in a better position to fully support my family. I would want to save part of my transfers and add to the little amount of money I would be getting from my hassles to help me achieve my goals.

I received my transfers at a time when I was in dire need of food, with the ongoing drought it had been difficult for us to do farming and therefore getting food had been a challenge and there had also been a scarcity in the water supply. Receiving the transfers had been a great relief to me; I bought food and water worth KES. 2970 and spent the remaining amount of KES. 500 on paying my child’s school fees who was almost being sent home for school fees. I was very grateful for the support at this time of need.

I own a grocery shop selling sardines, tomatoes, and onions. I have been in this business for four years now. Before receiving this transfer I was getting a profit of $2.7 every day that would help to buy food and pay school fees for my four children who are enrolled in school. I have six children, two dropped out of school due to lack of school fees. I spent the last transfer to buy food that cost $14, paid $4.5 for my child's school fees, and stocked my business with $9. Restocking my business has enabled me to get $5 as profit in a day which helps me save money for rainy days.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly does a good job of providing unconditional cash transfers to the most vulnerable members of the community. Following up on us is a good thing in and of itself because it helps us identify and build trust in the organization. This is unique because some intervening organizations do not invest heavily in follow up after providing some assistance to people. Both approaches encapsulate what I believe GiveDirectly does so well. On the contrary, because no one in our village has complained about how the transfers were handled, I believe there is nothing that this NGO does poorly.

I have been running a shop business as the primary source of my earnings. However, due to escalated prices of commodities, it has not been performing as it used to. Therefore with my most recent transfer, I invested KES 3000 on business by purchasing additional items that I did have then, and that to a given extent has promoted my daily sales. Since food is critical and we did not have sufficient foodstuff, I spent KES 900 on food which lasted us over one week. In addition, I had an uncleared fee for my 3 daughters. With the transfer. I was able to pay KES 1,000 and I am super glad that they are now comfortably learning without the stress of being sent home to collect the fee. I am so grateful to GiveDirectly for its amazing support.

I slept early that day and had not switched off my phone. The message notification tone woke me up and with my eyes half open, I read the message, which was the best news received that night. I woke up and told my wife, who was not asleep, and the excitement filled the air. We were both excited and happy that night.

Providing food for my family is the biggest difference in my daily life since I started receiving these transfers. It is a struggle to get casual jobs on construction sites and the charcoal burning business is not consistent in terms of the income flow. My plan is to save up and have the capital to start a grocery shop. My wife can help to run the business as I continue looking for any casual job available in order to suffice my financial obligations.

Lack of food is the biggest challenge that I am facing because of the harsh climate changes. I am a peasant farmer who depends mainly on the planting of maize as a cash crop. Because of the dry season have been working as a charcoal burner and vendor which earns me a minimum of KES 3000-4000 on a monthly basis. My challenge is food insecurity because I have a family of five members and daily we use KES 500 at least for food. It has forced me to seek other alternatives by working on construction sites as a casual laborer in order to provide for my family. I Spent my transfer of KES 600 to pay school fees arrears for my three children and used the KES 600 to buy food which will barely survive for 2days.