Following a successful harvest that I believe will sustain my family until next year, I am now focusing on addressing other previously challenging needs, particularly related to education. My main objective is to actively support the education of our four children, thus alleviating some financial burdens from my husband, who works as a casual laborer. To achieve this, I contribute $5 monthly to our merry-go-round group, which I believe is a promising initiative. With the help of cash transfers, I am confident that I will be able to save effectively and ensure that my children receive the best education, allowing them to concentrate fully on their studies without worries.

I engage in charcoal burning and farming to support my family, although the income is not sufficient to meet all our needs, especially with my four school-going children. To ensure my children are not frequently sent home from school due to fee balances, I allocate my monthly transfers wisely. Upon receiving my recent transfer, I allocated $40 towards farming with the aim of obtaining good yields to support my family, as I sell excess produce to raise funds for my children's school fees. Additionally, I used $13 for food purchases and $21 to buy poles for constructing a new house, as the current one is in poor condition and almost collapsing. I am sincerely grateful to Give Directly for the tremendous support provided to my family.

I sell charcoal to get an income, my husband farms for income. I have not had an income for two months, I cannot burn charcoal with the rains. It has been a blessing but the El-nino led to a number of losses including some seedlings we had in a bed to replant. This season will be preceded by another long drought and since we would like to farm to generate income we want to direct our funds next year to digging a well which we will use to do irrigation and ensure that our crops thrive. We will also save for a water pump to help get the water to the house.

We have had the longest drought but fortunately the rain graced us with its presence in the recent months. As much as this has been a blessing it has had its struggles. Out house was affected in a big way with this rains that we had to repair a good chunk of the house. In November I gave my husband $22 to buy building poles to help with construction of the house. I used the rest of the money to prepare for the festivities of December, I bought fabric at $10 and shoes at $2. In September I bought a goat at $20 and saved $10 to my village savings group. The $4 left I bought soap at $2 and used the rest of the money to mill maize for preparing maize meal. In October I decided to ensure that my children would get uniform for school, I paid $3 for my three children and an organisation paid for the rest of the money for uniform, I also spent $2 each for them to get shoes. The $12 that was left was saved in my village savings group.

With the recent successful harvest that I am confident will sustain my family until next year, I plan to address other needs that were previously challenging to afford due to constraints related to food. My main objective is to actively contribute to the education of our four children, thereby providing support to my husband and alleviating some of his financial burdens. To achieve this, I believe that venturing into goat rearing is a promising option. However, goats have become relatively expensive, with each goat costing nearly $40. Nevertheless, with the assistance of the cash transfers, I am confident that I will be able to save and embark on my goat-rearing journey.

I have three children who are currently attending primary school. I am determined not to solely rely on my husband to support their education if I have the means to contribute as well. My husband primarily relies on casual labor and his chicken-rearing project to provide for our family. However, the income generated from these activities is sometimes insufficient to cover all our household needs, including food and school fees. Therefore, when I received the recent cash transfer, I allocated $23 to settle the outstanding tuition fees, which could have otherwise resulted in our children missing classes. Following this, I spent $7 to purchase a duck and expand our poultry-rearing venture, following in my husband's footsteps. I set aside the remaining $4 to cover posho mill charges, as we recently harvested maize that needs to be ground into flour for food preparation.

Due to our low level-income, my husband and I have a primary goal of paying school fees for our children so that they can have ample time in school to better their performance. I always feel happy seeing my children go to school because that will help them be independent and reliable citizens. In addition, I aim to practice poultry farming. It is a promising venture that can help me since I am jobless. I hope to raise over three hundred domestic fowls by the end of the year. I know that is achievable because I have plenty of time at home to attend to them.

I am unemployed and spend most of my days at home after losing my job in February this year. However, as a family, we rely heavily on my husband, who works in a bakery despite earning little money. We have to bear a lot in life because of starvation caused by drought. However, I hope that things may improve and get better one day. With my most recent transfer, I spent $25 on the bed for my children. I also spent $9 on school fees for my three school-going children. I utilized the remainder to feed my five-person household.

After my husband and I separated, I ended up being a single parent, and he completely abandoned taking care of his own kids, which has in turn left a huge burden on my shoulders. These funds mean a lot to me because they help me cater to the needs of my four children, especially in these tough times. Therefore, I intend to use a significant amount of these transfers to pay for tuition fees for my kids. Afterwards, I plan on investing in poultry farming because this could come in handy in the long run. I also want to make certain that my family is well-fed.

After a minor argument, my husband and I divorced early this year. Since that time, I have been in charge of meeting all of my four children's needs. I am a housekeeper in the Mombasa town area, and my monthly salary is only $30. I spent a significant portion of my most recent transfers, totaling $28, on clothing for my kids. There was only one pair of clothing left for each of my four kids; the rest were either torn or too small to fit them again. I'm glad they have new clothes now because they'll look better and feel better about themselves as they play with the other kids at home. I also bought clothes and bought food with the remaining $6. There was only a small amount of maize flour left to cook before everything was gone. Purchasing the food provided me with sufficient peace of mind that my kids wouldn't go to bed hungry or scrounge up food from their neighbors.

Every time I come back home, I am disturbed by the type of house in which my mother lives. Her house is not only in a dilapidated state, but it is also too small to accommodate a single 3 by 6 bed. She, therefore, spreads her beddings on the floor.  As a result of my recent transfer, I gave her KES 1,500 to save, and I intend to build savings for her every month to build her a spacious house. We are always embarrassed to sleep in the neighborhood at night. In addition, I spent KES 1,500 on a small business that sells cooked food. I hope this venture will always generate income to supplement my monthly transfers.

GiveDirectly is one of the many organizations that has visited our area and kept their promise of supporting us through cash transfers. That they enrolled the entire area free from all prejudice and favoritism is one thing that makes this organization stand out. I have not yet seen anything that is not done well.  

Recently, I separated from my husband and went back home. I left the children with my mother and traveled to a nearby town to look for a job. Luckily I got a job as a cook in a café and am paid KES 200 per day. My husband came and picked up my three children and left my mother with the young one. Although the children are under his care, he has failed to pay for their school fees, which is a challenge. I used KES 1000 to buy food, KES 900 for school fees for my three children at school and used KES 500 to buy uniforms for one of my children.  

While at my day to day work, I received a message alert on my phone and since I do not know how to read well, I headed to the nearest MPESA agent so that he could check it for me. I was so happy on hearing the news that I received the MPESA amount and withdrew KES 200 which I sent to my kids for their use.

My kids will now be able to stay in school and not miss any lessons over the term as I will now be able to pay up any fee arrears. I also plan on buying goats to enhance my animal farming skills with further transfers received.

Having had a rough marriage due to separation with my husband, all from conflicts, I had to take up the mantle of trying the best I can to raise them with the help of my mum where they stay. I am currently employed as a house worker and on receiving the KES 1200, I sent KES 200 to my four kids for their sustenance and the remaining KES 1000, was able to save to pay for their school fees for the upcoming opening of schools.