In the upcoming year, I hope to start a grocery business. Currently, I make a living by burning charcoal, but this has had negative effects on my health. The physical exhaustion and strain I experience daily are unsustainable in the long run. By starting a grocery business, I aim to work in a healthier environment while still providing for my family. This business will enable me to offer fresh produce and everyday essentials to my community, while also creating a stable income that doesn't compromise my well-being.

I am a housewife with 10 children, and I rely on the GiveDirectly transfers to support my family. My husband does casual jobs, but they are not enough to meet all our needs. Education is my top priority, especially for my four children in secondary school and four in primary. With the latest three transfers totaling $102, I used $90 to pay their school fees. Ensuring that they remain in school is crucial to me because I want to see them succeed, become responsible individuals in our community, and eventually be independent. This is my way of securing a better future for them. With the remaining $12, I bought food for the family. Although it wasn't much, it helped us get by and ensured my children had something to eat. I usually allocate $30 monthly specifically for their school fees and use the remaining $4 for their daily breakfast. Every little bit counts when it comes to ensuring my children are nourished and ready to learn each day. I am committed to doing everything I can to give them the best chance at a better life.

After careful consideration on how to achieve financial stability, I am planning to start a grocery business, recognizing that these financial transfers will end in five years. This business will allow me to comfortably support my family with the profits generated. Although a large part of my focus is on paying my child's school fees, I plan to set aside a small portion of each transfer to build the capital needed to start this venture. I am confident that this strategy will help realize my dream in the coming years. Hence this is my goal in the coming year and beyond.

My spouse and I are parents to eight wonderful children. We earn our living through farming and assisting in construction work, respectively. With four children in secondary school and another four in primary, managing school expenses is a significant challenge. Recently, I received a total of $102 in transfers, which I fully allocated towards the school fees for my secondary school children. I'm profoundly thankful for this financial support, as it ensures my children can stay in school and focus on their studies, rather than being sent home for unpaid fees as they were in the past. Before receiving these transfers, life was challenging due to the unreliable nature of our casual jobs. These transfers have allowed me to keep up with school payments consistently, significantly easing our financial burdens.

My goal as I said is to build a house for myself. Building is not cheap. It is an expensive affair that would take up a lot of finances. This is especially for roofing. I plan to take out around $60 from my savings and pay a down payment so that the shops can start delivering roofing materials. I plan to continue saving so that I am able to afford building myself a house that would be one worth showing and living in.

I joined a savings group where for the last three months I have made a savings deposit of $30. The $4 left has gone into buying maize flour. I have 10 children, my oldest, a lady, is married but the other 8 stay with me. I have 2 houses for them one for the girls and the other for the boys. I have three boys and 6 girls living with me with my two youngest living with me in my small house. My house has no rooms its a single roomed small house that is not even sufficient for myself. I have this savings up to ensure I achieve my goal of building for myself.

I talked about my children in school but I also have children out of school. I have two of my children who finished form four but cannot join secondary school because I cannot afford to take them to school. I dig up tree stumps and sell in order to make some cash but the money I make from this is not sufficient to pay school fees for all the eight of my children. I hope that as from beginning next year I will have some money to enroll the two into secondary school which ensures that all my children are able to get through school.

I was part of a village that was registered for the Giveidirectly program. Interestingly the schools are also aware of this that a large number of parents are beneficiaries are parents and some are even beneficiaries. So normally toward the end of the month they will chase children home to collect school fee balances to ensure that parents pay their children's school fees since they would mostly have received the money. I am not any different. A big chunk of what we received would be directed to the school. In July I paid $20 for my two secondary school children while $14 went into procuring food. This was similar to August as $10 went to secondary school while $8 went to junior secondary, I also got books for the children in junior secondary. In September I was also able to pay $15 to secondary school and $19 went into buying uniform for those in junior school.

My hope and plan is to build a house, so I typically invest in cows as a way to save money. Additionally, I want my kids to complete their education and become independent in the future.

My top priority is my children's education, so I used the money I received from GiveDirectly to pay for their school fees. I have four children, two in secondary school and two in primary school. I allocated $30 towards their school fees, ensuring they can continue their education without interruption. With the remaining $4, I purchased food for our family.

My short-term goal is to open a grocery shop. With the current drought, not a lot can afford to buy water for irrigation but if I can come up with enough capital and be getting the groceries from the market, the business can flourish.

I have been in the charcoal business for the longest. I produce five sacks of charcoal in a week which gives me $22. I spend this money to buy food for the family. But with the prolonged drought that we are currently having it is difficult to find trees. Luckily, my husband is the primary caregiver and he works as a Mansory where he gets $15 a day and mostly helps in paying school fees for my children. I have eight children, six in school, it has been a challenge getting school fees but thanks to GiveDirectly money I was able to enroll my two boys in high school. Currently, we are supposed to pay $70 a term and with GIveDirectly transfer I am confident I will manage to keep my boys in school as I work to get money for other bills in the house.

The arrival of the transfers were such a huge relief for me especially because my kids had been out of school for almost a fortnight and I was concerned because they were about to sit for exams. Therefore when I got the opportunity to withdraw the funds I went ahead to pay tuition fee for two of my children were in high school which cost me KES 2,000 and then I used the rest of the money which was KES 1,000 to pay more fees for their two siblings in elementary.

The staff members from Give Directly were very friendly. This created an environment for me to share information with them. I would like to commend them for the good work they did in our village. I want to urge the organization to increase the monthly stipend so that we can cope with the high prices of the commodities.

Both my husband and I are casual laborers. I make and sell charcoal whereas my husband builds people's houses. Both our earnings are very little owing to our jobs. The charcoal selling business is not doing well because the demand is low, forcing me to sell cheap. My husband does not workdays due to the difficulties in finding houses to build or repair. When I received my transfer, I spent KES 2000 on paying school fees for my seven children who were on the verge of being sent home due to school fees arrears. Six of them are in primary school and cumulatively they owe the school KES 6000. The other is in secondary school and owes the school KES 15000. The fee balances are huge and it is a challenge for both me and my husband to pay due to the low income. Besides paying school fees, I spent KES 1000 to buy food. I did not make any sales, hence I had no money to buy food for my children.

On that day, I stayed the whole day without my phone since it had been taken for charging in the morning by my husband. When he came back home in the evening, I noticed an unusual excitement in him. Before I could ask him about how his day was, he informed me that my transfer was sent. Since we were all sitting together with our children, everyone expressed his/her joy. That was least anticipated since we had missed our meals during the day. The previous night we slept hungry and I was not sure when I would get some money because the charcoal business that I was doing was overflooded thus yielding less than what I expected. Thanks to GiveDirectly for such timely support.

Before I received my first transfer, I did not have any business to run. Instead, I was always focused on charcoal making which was not yielding much because of the low market. Courtesy of the transfer, I started a small business of selling food. This I began with just KES 800. However, I am so excited that from the business, I can always get a profit of about KES 200. Consequently, supporting my family has not become burdensome compared to how it was before.

In our locality, we have been affected by prolonged drought. This situation has subjected us to famine since food is scarce and its prices are extremely high. As soon as I confirmed my transfer receipt, I opted to buy 3 packets of 2kg maize flour. On that day, we had depleted food we had and I had no money for buying additional foodstuff. I am glad that out of the transfer, I was able to use KES 800 to start up a business dealing with the sale of foodstuff in the nearby market. From this business, I am assured of raising a net profit of KES 200 daily, which is relatively better and can comfortably support my family. Previously, I was relying on making and selling charcoal, a venture that was strenuous and less profitable.