As I mentioned earlier my husband is a casual worker in the sense that he does jobs when there are some available. He sometimes is a driver, sometimes he is working in a construction site and other times taking motorcycle rides. I would want a more stable income even as our children grow older and so this is my reason for investing my money in the business. I plan to continue investing the business so that we can use the proceeds to take the children through school.

My husband used to be the sole breadwinner in the house, engaging in casual labour as a motorbike rider, masonry work and even sometimes driving vehicles. When we were enrolled into the Givedirectly project our goal as a family was to set up a business to ensure I also had an income coming in. We saved our first two months transfers and set up the shop we now have. I used $20 in November and October to boost the business. I also bought food in these two months at $10. I paid $3 for my child in October and Bought $4 worth of toiletries in November. Due to the festivities I spent $25 on clothes for my children and $5 on wheat flour and cooking oil.

The tough financial times I have experienced this year have been a great learning point for me. It is also clear that I cannot earn enough from the grocery business I operate to cater for all my financial needs, and if I need to improve my living standards and give my children the best education, I need to improve my earnings either by bringing in several other items or opening another business to run concurrently with the current one. After carefully thinking about it and doing a bit of research, I have decided to open a hotel business in a nearby centre. I will be operating the hotel business concurrently with the grocery business in order to improve my earnings. To achieve this, I have been saving part of my monthly transfers in local savings group consisting of 33 individuals and at the end of the year, we will be getting back our savings which I will then use to set up the business. Having only a few left to end of this wonderful program., I need to do my best to ensure that by the time it ends, I will have a stable source of income and live a much better life than I was when I was enrolled. The transfers will also be of great help in terms of improving the hotel business and purchasing all the necessary equipment.

I operate a small grocery business as my primary source of income. With the recent hike in food commodities, the business has not been doing well because my profit margins have decreased. This is due to the high prices at which I purchase the commodities and the little sales I make. My customers now choose to forego meals as they can no longer afford 3 square meals a day. Being my primary source of income, I also rely on the business for all my financial needs which means I take out more than make. For these reasons, the business was diminishing so I used some of the transfers received within the past few months to stabilize it by adding more stock and bringing in new commodities. I have also been saving part of my monthly transfers in a local savings group with the aim of starting another business next year. My children have also been beneficiaries of these transfers as their school needs are well taken care of such as school fee payments and the purchase of school items such as school uniforms.

We formed a savings group in January with an aim of saving part of our transfers and later using it to improve our living standards. We're 25 members and I have been saving KES 1000 monthly. We will divide the money that we will be having in December as per everyone's contribution. Currently, I am planning to spend this money to start up a restaurant business that will enable me to generate income. This is because I am currently a house wife and I depend on my husband who also have other responsibilities since I am his second wife. I believe that by starting a business, my life will change positively and I will have something tangible that will always remind me of GiveDirectly.

Upon receiving my most recent transfer, I spent KES 750 to pay school fees for my child to avoid her from being sent back home. Also, I used KES 900 to buy her school uniforms to replace the old ones she was using after saving KES 1000 in our savings group that we recently formed. This group consists mainly of GiveDirectly beneficiaries and we formed it with an aim of using the savings later to achieve our different goals in life. Using the remaining amount, I bought food to last my family for some time.

The transfers that I have been receiving have been of great help in terms of paying school fees for my children, adding stock to my small business of selling mandazi(a form of fried bread) and also catering for my family’s needs. But my major goal is to expand my business to a big restaurant whose income would be sufficient to support my family without much struggle. I would never want the transfers to go in vain but to invest in something substantial that would help me generate income even in the future and provide my children with better education. To achieve my goals, I always set aside a little amount and by January next year, I want to have the restaurant in operation.

I run a small business of selling chips in the nearby center. As a result of the high cost of items, it has not been performing very well, subjecting me to financial constraints. Unfortunately, my husband also has an irregular income since he depends on unpredictable casual jobs. During the Christmas festive season, we had financial constraints and thought we would not gift our three beautiful daughters. However, immediately after I received my transfer, I prioritized buying them new attire. I, therefore, spent $22 on buying new clothes for my three lovely daughters; Neema, Mary, and Saumu. They were so happy, and I felt so delighted to partake in their joy. Since I did not have any money, I did not know how I would have gifted my lovely daughters. My husband was also happy and grateful to GiveDirectly. The rest of the transfers enabled us to buy food for the family.

I spent KES 1,700 on purchasing school uniforms and paying the school fees for my children in primary school. They are not studying well without being sent home. This was affecting their performance since they would miss some of the lessons. I am expecting to see a better performance this time. The remaining amount of money I spent on food and other basic household items that we were missing. I am so grateful for the support because GiveDirectly has changed living standards.

The services and educational information about the proper usage of the transfers from the staff were good. The information was essential in helping us make the right decisions on investments. I would recommend the organization employ more staff who will ensure that they enroll more people into the program.

I have a small poultry project that I ran in my home. I am a businesswoman who earns a living by selling vegetables in the village market. My husband is a casual laborer who earns a living by building other people’s houses, fetching water, and farming on other people’s land. The little I earn from my business is used to buy food and pay school fees for my two children. Sometimes I have no money left to buy feeds for the chicken I rear. So when I received my transfer, I spent KES 1500 on buying growers' mash for the chicken. I gave priority to buying the feeds because I see this as an alternative source of income in the future that will help me earn some good income. Besides buying the animal feeds, I spent KES 1000 to buy food for the family after exhausting the food stocks in the house and had no money, and neither did my husband buy more food.

That evening, I had slept when I was woken up by massage notifications from both my phone and my husband's. It couldn't be a coincident that the our local network provider decided to send us promotional codes at the same time and that prompted me to open my messager. I woke my husband up with a scream of joy and told him that the transfers had been send. I stopped worrying about if my children would be allowed back to school as I was sure that will KES 1000 which was half their balance, the school head would allow them back.

My business would probably have collapsed because I didn't have money to add stock which was almost depleted. I'm earning a higher profit out of the stock that I added and I'm now able to provide for my children without much strain.

Being married in a polygamous family, I couldn't fully depend on my husband who is a casual labourer and earns living through cultivating in people's farms and working on construction sites as he had another family to provide for. I have been operating a local green grocery store to provide for my six children and due to aftermath of coronavirus pandemic, I have been struggling to sustain the business which was at the verge of collapsing. I spend KES 2000 to add stock and KES 1000 to redeem part of school fees balance so that four of my school going children could be allowed back in school when schools reopens. I'm happy that the business seems to be picking up well and my children were allowed in school today which was the opening day.