I am currently employed as a motorcycle driver while my wife runs a small fried chicken business. With five school-aged children, we have to work diligently to generate enough income to support them. The assistance we receive from GiveDirectly has significantly reduced our financial strain, allowing us to have extra income for our family. Looking ahead to the next year and beyond, I have two main priorities to address. First, I aim to build a proper coop for my poultry. I started this project to prepare for when the transfers end, ensuring that I will have a sustainable investment that provides income during financial difficulties. Chickens reproduce quickly and have a strong market demand, which is why I chose to invest my transfers in this venture. I plan to continue using part of my transfers to purchase more chickens and expand my poultry farming. I am pleased to say that I already have ten chickens, which is a solid starting point. Additionally, I want to prioritize my children's education by allocating another portion of my transfer to cover their school fees, ensuring they receive the best possible education. As the saying goes, education is the key to success, and I want to make certain that my children are well-educated so they can support themselves and their families in the future.

I have five children who are currently in school. I want to express my gratitude to GiveDirectly for the financial support that has enabled me to cover my children's education. Since I began receiving these transfers, my children have not been sent home for outstanding fees because I can now pay on time. Previously, before I joined this program, they were frequently sent home for unpaid fees, which disrupted their studies. With my latest transfer, I used $48 to pay my children's school fees, dividing the amount among four of them. At present, we are facing significant drought in our area, which has impacted our situation greatly. Accessing water and food is challenging, as even vegetables are scarce, and the little that is available is being sold at high prices. Consequently, I purchased $60 worth of food to ensure we have some stored for later while we continue to seek income to support my family.

I am currently working as a motorcycle driver while my wife deep fries chicken for sale. Inspired by the profitability of selling chicken, I am saving a portion of my income each month to start my own chicken selling project. My plan is to begin by constructing a facility where I can house and feed the chickens. Through my research, I have learned that the chicken business offers substantial profit margins and a reliable market. This venture will enable me to generate income that I can set aside for my children's school fees. Currently, I have six chickens, and I anticipate expanding this number to around forty by the end of the year. I understand the importance of managing the flock size to prevent disease outbreaks as they multiply. My strategy involves selling the chickens as they reach a manageable quantity, ensuring a sustainable and profitable operation.

I am a father of seven children, with five currently enrolled in school while two are not yet of age to attend. Upon receiving my first transfers, my wife and I made a firm decision to allocate all transfers towards our children's education. It was our priority to ensure that none of our children would face the risk of being sent home from school due to unpaid fees, and that they would have every opportunity to excel in life. I spent $102 from the transfers specifically for paying my children's school fees. Education is incredibly important to us, as we believe it is the key to opening doors of opportunity. I am particularly proud of my son Stephen, who is currently completing his Form Four studies. Another son is in Form Two and progressing well towards completing his education. Thanks to GiveDirectly, I have the means to provide them with quality education, which brings immense joy to our family. We are truly grateful for the support we've received, and we remain optimistic about the bright future ahead for our children. Seeing them thrive academically fills me with pride and reinforces our belief in a better tomorrow.

My goal was and still remains to educate my children with this transfers. I would probably be unable to get any of them to school if I depended on my income entirely. The increase in fuel prices have reduced our profits greatly which means that whatever we make cannot do much back at home. My goal is to ensure my oldest who is in their last year of high school to complete school and the siblings that are right after to also have a similar chance to clear school. I also would like to restart the business for my wife that she was previously doing of selling food but on this I am dependent on my earnings.

My life has become very easy thanks to Givedirectly transfers. I am a motorcycle rider and at some point my wife ran a small road side food stall which contributed to our income, however one of our children fell ill and we ended up using money from the food stall until we closed it up, our child is better now but my wife has no means of making an income and so I am the sole provider from my motorcycle business. Through this business I am able to buy food but due to the high inflation Givedirectly transfers have helped with keeping my children in school. I used my transfers to buy shoes for two of my children at $20, I paid school fees for each of my three school going children of $20 each which is $60 total. I also bought sugar for the family on a monthly basis at $4

My primary goal with the cash transfers is to invest in the education of my children. Two of them are currently in high school, and by the time the transfers conclude, they will have completed their high school education. Over the next three years, I plan to utilize the cash transfers primarily to cover their school fees. The income from my motorbike taxi business is insufficient to support the education of all seven children, making the cash transfers a crucial resource in sustaining their educational journey. I am extremely grateful to GiveDirectly for its impactful charity efforts, providing support that I have not witnessed elsewhere.

As a motorbike rider, the cash transfers have significantly contributed to providing for my seven children and supporting their education during school days. In the recent months, the majority of my cash transfers were allocated to the preparations for Christmas celebrations, focusing on food and clothing for my children. Therefore, I spent $34 to purchase a goat. We will prepare this for the festive meal on Christmas day. I also used another $34 to buy new dresses for my four girls. Every festive season, we have a tradition of buying new clothes for the children so that they can enjoy their day, and am happy the transfers are supporting us in this. Additionally, as the region experienced consistent rainfall over the past three months, I allocated $30 towards plowing an acre and a half of my farm to produce food. Unfortunately, the heavy rains adversely affected the maize crops, as the soils became waterlogged, which led to stunted growth of the crops. I fear that this season a bountiful harvest is uncertain.

My primary goal is to provide a quality education for my six school-going children. Overcoming the financial challenges associated with their school fees payment has been a constant struggle for me. To achieve this, I am determined to allocate a significant portion of my monthly income towards settling their outstanding fees, ensuring that when the project comes to an end, I can look back with pride at the education I have provided for them.

I received the GiveDirectly money at a time when I was financially struggling, it provided a much-needed support. With the transfers, I immediately prioritized my son's education and used $30 to send him back to school, rescuing him from being sent home due to unpaid fees. This brought immense relief to me. With the remaining $4.70, I bought essential food items for my family, ensuring we had enough to eat during this challenging period. GiveDirectly's assistance not only eased my financial burden but also brought hope and stability to our lives, for which I am truly grateful.

Since I struggle to raise money for my two children in High School, I hope to invest my monthly transfers in their education expenses. I will be glad to see them succeed in their educational pursuit courtesy of GiveDirectly's transfers. Their success will serve as a reminder to my children of the contribution of GiveDirectly's transfers in the positive change in their life. I know it will be a thrilling moment for them to recall back their school life which would have not been a reality without such support. As a result, my income will always be diverted into food since I am the sole breadwinner in our family.

I am a father of two children, Everline and Steven. Both of them are from the same school. I heavily rely on a motorcycle which has not been profitable due to the rise in fuel and few clients. Since I have a meager income that is always insufficient to pay all the school fees, I prioritized spending $30 on paying their fee arrears. I am glad that despite the pending fee arrears, they have not been sent home. Instead, they have been able to be in school and focus on their learning. In addition, due to the large number of our household membership, ten members, I contributed the balance of $4 towards food that took us for a day.

I am convinced that education will improve my children's lives and help them escape the poverty I am currently experiencing. I struggle to provide for all of my five children's educational needs because of low paying job as a motorcycle taxi, or "bodaboda." My new objective for the coming months is to use the funds from my subsequent transfers to pay my kids' tuition. They won't be expelled for having unpaid school fees as a result, allowing them to concentrate on their education.

My motorcycling business has not been picking up well since the number of customers who can afford the service has tremendously reduced. Mostly, the service is preferred by those people who work from Mombasa town and only visit the village during the weekend or end month. Nowadays, instead of visiting, these individuals choose to send cash back home through mobile money to save them the transport fare. This in turn costs me potential clients. With such challenges, the most I can get from the business is $2 on a good day. This money barely provides anything beyond food for my family of nine people (my wife and seven children). As such, am afraid it will be difficult to save enough funds for the incoming Christmas season which usually bears its share of rapidly increasing commodity prices. To avoid the last-minute pressure, I aim to start planning for the celebrations as early as now. So I used $30 for celebratory foodstuffs like wheat flour, rice, sugar, and cooking oil. I spent the remaining amount to refuel my motorcycle because it had run empty and I had not earned anything the previous day.

Since the coronavirus pandemic emerged in 2020, it has had an adverse influence on the motorcycle business in my area, on which I depend for a living. The number of people traveling dropped while that of motorcycle riders increased from five to at least twenty, due to lost employment. A hustle that used to bring in at least KES 800 per day now only generates KES 200 on a good day. With this amount, the much I can provide for my family is at least one meal per day. Such financial constraints leave other wants unattended to, particularly farming practices.  Since it is the rain season, I planted maize on my one-acre plot of land to cultivate and provide food for the family. I had to use the entire transfer amount on hiring laborers to weed the maize field to give room for the crops to grow. 

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of GiveDirectly in helping the poor in society. Having faced a lot of challenges to a point of spending all my savings and leaving with nothing, GiveDirectly came in to rescue the situation. I would recommend the organization observe timely disbursal of the transfers to ensure it does not affect us as we heavily depend on them.

I earn a living as a motorcycle rider, “boda-boda driver”. My wife has a small hotel business where she sells cooked food to clients. The harsh economic conditions present in the country have posed an enormous challenge in my work. An increase in fuel prices has reduced our profit margin immensely. It is now very hard to cater to the daily needs of my family (mother, wife, and 7 children). This forced my wife to shut his business to attend to my sick son, who was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted to the hospital. She exhausted all her saving paying for our son’s treatment. I could not work for the past week because of helping my wife take care of our son. With no income from both me and my wife, the situation worsened, and lacked food for the better part of the week. Upon receiving my transfer, I bought a 90kg bag of maize that will last us for the next three weeks because of the enormous size of my family.

I was working when I received the message confirming that I had received funds from give directly. I was very happy and excited. I dropped off my client then I headed to an mpesa shop to withdraw the money. After which, I rode to my son's school to pay for his rent and school fee arrears.

These funds created for me a bridge to a different financial status. I could now pay my child's fee and he wouldn't worry about being sent home. Now I feel like this has been short lived. I missed out on this month's transfer and he is now worried about being sent home due to his current school fee arrears.

There is a scheme that was introduced in my village that supported those who were interested in working as motorcyclist riders. This has made it hard for me to earn as I did because there were many people offering the same service. Whereby, before I earned KES600 and now even getting KES200 is but luck. Due to financial constraints, I have been late on the school fee payment for my six children. Currently, their arrears have accrued to KES4000. This was after I paid KES2000 from the KES3000 I received from give directly, for my firstborn child who is in secondary school now. As for the amount that remained, I used KES500 to pay for his rent and KES500 to buy maize flour.