Living in a two-room house presents challenges, especially with growing children. My two sons share one room, while my daughters and I occupy the other. With my daughters approaching adulthood and my husband frequently away for work, it's clear they'll need their own space. Therefore, my new goal is to construct an additional bedroom for my daughters next year. This expansion will ease our cramped living conditions and provide my daughters with the privacy and comfort they deserve. I am optimistic that this project will greatly enhance our family's well-being and create a more conducive environment for us.

I recently took a solar loan for lighting, and now I make monthly payments of $11. With my most recent transfer, I paid $33 to settle my loan ahead of time to avoid defaulting. I allocated $30 to pay off the school fees for my five children since I had an outstanding balance and didn't want them to be sent home for unpaid fees. With the remaining amount, I spent $16 on food for my family as our supplies were running low. Lastly, I made my monthly contribution of $30 to my savings group (chama), which I joined to save up for important assets that I couldn't afford on my own. I am thankful to GiveDirectly for their financial support, which has significantly eased my financial burden. Now, I am able to afford tuition fees for my five children, something that was not possible before, as I rely on small-scale farming to support my family.

Living in a two-roomed house presents challenges, especially with growing children. Currently, my two sons share one room while my daughters and I occupy the other. As they approach adulthood, it's clear they'll need their own space. This arrangement becomes even more challenging with my husband frequently away for work. Therefore, my new goal is to construct an additional bedroom for my daughters next year. This expansion will not only ease the cramped living conditions but also provide my daughters with the privacy and comfort they deserve. I am optimistic that this project will greatly enhance our family's well-being and create a more conducive environment for us.

My spouse and I rely on casual inconsistent jobs to support our family. With four children in school, prioritizing their education is paramount. Therefore, I allocated $34 from my recent transfers towards school fees, which helped alleviate a portion of our outstanding balance. Consistently making monthly payments demonstrates our commitment, ensuring that our children aren't sent home due to fee arrears. In addition to addressing educational expenses, I also invested in improving our home environment. I allocated $33 to pay off a solar lamp loan, ensuring reliable lighting for our household. Furthermore, I used the remaining funds to fulfill my merry-go-round contribution and purchase food, along with a cooking pot to enhance our kitchen facilities.

Despite residing in a two bedroom house, I currently accommodate both my two daughters and two sons. However, due to my husband's absence for work, my sons spend in one bedroom while my daughters share the other with me. To break this arrangement, my new goal is to construct an additional bedroom for my daughters. I am optimistic that this goal can be achieved next year. By providing a separate space for my daughters, I aim to enhance their privacy, comfort, and overall well-being within our home. This expansion project holds great significance for our family and will contribute to creating a more suitable living environment for everyone.

Being a member of a saving scheme, I consistently save $10 per month with the intention of accumulating extra funds for investment. I have successfully acquired three goats through this saving scheme, which holds promise for future income generation. I have four children who are currently attending school, and I allocate $24 from my monthly transfers to cover their school fees. Initially, it was a challenge to afford their education. The GiveDirectly financial aid has alleviated the financial burden and provided stability, enabling my children to receive an education without struggle. GiveDirectly has played a significant role in improving our lives, and I am grateful for their assistance.

As my four children are gradually growing up, it's becoming less suitable for them to share sleeping quarters with me, as my need for privacy is not being met. My intention is to construct an additional room to provide separate sleeping spaces. Alongside this, I have aspirations to invest in acquiring livestock, which will serve as a valuable asset in the future for covering educational expenses for my children. I am sincerely thankful for the assistance we've received, which has ensured that my family never goes to bed hungry during times when we've had to purchase food at significantly inflated prices from local shops.

During the rainy season, I engage in subsistence farming and livestock raising, while my husband works as a casual laborer. With my August transfers, totaling $10, I bought five packets of maize flour. Unfortunately, our farm's maize crop wasn't ready, compelling us to purchase food to meet our family's needs. I allocated $10 to a savings group and used the funds to acquire six goats, all of which were bought with the transfer money. I saved an additional $5 with the intention of settling a school fee debt for my primary school-aged children before the upcoming term. Additionally, I spent $1.5 on a new pair of shoes for my son. The remaining funds were used to purchase essential items like sugar, soap, and detergent for our family. I'm extremely grateful for the financial assistance we've received, as it has made a significant difference in improving our family's well-being.

Building another room has always been my top priority since our two-roomed house is small and cramped. My boys share a room, and the two girls share another, which isn't ideal. Thanks to GiveDirectly's financial support, I am now able to make this dream a reality. I am grateful for their assistance, and I can't wait to build an additional room for my two girls. This extra space will provide them with the comfort and privacy they deserve, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to improve our living conditions.

I used the money I received from GiveDirectly to pay for my child's school fees, which cost $10. Additionally, I added $10 to my merry-go-round, a savings group that comes in handy whenever I am in need. The group comprises seven people, and I usually receive $80 from it. Aside from taking care of my family, I also look after my livestock, including two cows and four goats.

My house is becoming small for my growing family of four children and two parents. Since there are only two rooms, the two boys occupy one chamber, while the girls stay in my room. I would like to extend an extra space for my daughters since they will need more privacy as they get older. For the last ten months, I have been saving part of each cash transfer through a self-help club to accumulate enough funds for the project. Once I withdraw the savings in March, I plan to begin the building exercise.

When my husband lost his driving job a year back, life started hitting my family hard since he was the breadwinner. Earlier this year, he went to Nairobi in search of more opportunities but has not been successful to date. He takes on casual tasks to fend for himself and hardly gets more to send home. As a result, I burn charcoal to provide for our four children here in the village, which barely covers food costs. Since the little I get is mostly spent on food, it is hard to settle school fees for the children. That is why I spent $10 from the cash transfer to clear school fees for three of my children who had been sent back home that day to collect the funds. Aside from that, the household had run out of maize flour that afternoon and I replenished more, worth $14. I decided to contribute the rest to a self-help group for saving purposes.

As soon as I received the funds from the Organization my immediate priority was to ensure that I pay tuition for my children especially since they were on the verge of being kicked out of school, therefore I ended up paying KES 1,000 for the four of them. Afterwards I was left with about KES 2,000 which I decided to utilize in matters concerned with nourishment, so I ended up buying a bag of maize flour which contained a dozen packets and this is because on most occasions we survived on very little food.

In my opinion, helping needy people like us is what GiveDirectly does well. I am personally grateful to be a beneficiary of the program which has improved my livelihood through the transfers. We have never had a program like this where the transfers are given unconditionally. Through these transfers, we have been able to fulfil our basic needs like food which is currently our major challenge. The subsistence farming that we usually engage in has failed due to drought thus we are left to rely on the transfers to buy food.

My husband was working in the transport sector and has been the breadwinner in our family. However, he was retrenched months ago and life took a new turn. He was unable to fully support the family in terms of basic needs like food. Receiving the transfer was a huge relief for me because I was able to buy enough food for my family. I had also bought food on credit and I'm glad that I settled the debts through the transfers. In addition to this, the transfer helped me to settle my children's school expenses. They were resuming classes thus I spent Ksh.1600 to pay fees and did enough shopping on stationeries to allow the comfortably continue with their studies.

I was just at home fetching water for the basic use and had left my phone in the house when the MPESA message was sent. When I went back to the house and checked on the text, I was so happy and a wide grin could clearly be seen on my face. I withdrew the funds the same day and bought food for my family.

Going hungry I can now say is a thing of the past as the funds have enabled me stock up food in the house to last us for a while all thanks to GiveDirectly.

Having no constant source of income except selling charcoal at times and my husband's job being terminated, life has been hard to get by especially since we have four children in the house. Food at some point got finished and we had to see the days through without a proper meal. The KES 3000 from GiveDirectly really rejuvinated our spirits as we were now able to buy food and not sleep hungry any more.