I separated from my husband many years ago, and the burden of caring for my children has always been on me. Life was extremely difficult before, as I had no source of income to support myself. My kids were frequently sent home from school, and some even dropped out due to lack of school fees. I am truly grateful that my circumstances have changed for the better. I am now able to afford school fees and buy food for my family. From the transfers I received, I allocated $90 to pay for my children's school fees as they had a pending debt that needed to be cleared. The remaining amount went towards small expenses like buying food and books for my children as they had none. GiveDirectly has been a source of hope for my family, and I am forever grateful for their support.

My goal for the year is to buy a bed for myself and my children. Currently, we sleep on the floor, and I don't even own a pair of shoes. Due to the current financial strains, it has been difficult to achieve this goal. I have started hawking milk in my village, and I am hopeful that this will yield good returns so I can buy these essentials for my family. This, together with the transfers, will enable me to comfortably send my children to school and buy a bed for my family. I am grateful to GiveDirectly for the financial support I have received so far. Your help has made a significant difference in our lives, and I am hopeful for a better future.

Enrolled in GiveDirectly after already being separated from my husband, I found myself fully responsible for my children. With no job opportunities in our village and young children to care for, I dedicated myself to farming for our sustenance and ensuring my children's well-being. From the monthly cash transfer, I managed to always pay their school fees. In the last three months, I paid $64 enabling all my four children to be in school. The remaining $38 was wisely spent on food and other essential household necessities. Witnessing my children consistently attending school, as opposed to being forced to stay home due to financial constraints, fills my heart with joy and gratitude. Thanks to GiveDirectly, the burden of financial stress has been eased, allowing me to focus on providing a better future for my family.

My desire is ensuring all my children receive the education they deserve. Although our current living conditions are far from ideal, with a dilapidated house where we sleep on the floor, my priority remains steadfast: to see my children in school. Despite our challenges, I am determined to persevere and use the GiveDirectly transfers on educating my children so that they can achieve their highest potential and break free from the cycle of poverty.

After my husband and I separated years ago, I found myself solely responsible for providing for my four children. The journey has been challenging, given the lack of external support and my inability to engage in physically demanding activities due to chest complications developed from charcoal-making. The ongoing cash transfers have been a lifeline, ensuring there's food on the table and supporting my children's education. Every month, I allocate $20 for school fees and $14 for purchasing food. The consistency of these funds has not only kept my children in school without missing a day but has also alleviated hunger in our household.

My overarching goal is to eventually own livestock, particularly goats. Unfortunately, financial constraints, especially related to school fee debts, have hindered my ability to save for this purpose. Juggling the needs of four children, who depend solely on me, limits my capacity to afford anything beyond necessities like food and school fees. I hope that, in the future, and ideally before the cash transfers cease, I will be able to save some funds and purchase livestock. Owning livestock would open avenues for future sales, providing crucial support for the ongoing needs of my family.

Receiving the transfer has greatly improved my life because I am now able to meet the basic needs of my household with ease. I currently have four children who rely on me to pay their school fees. I am a single parent with no other income, and the transfer has been my only hope. I am at ease because I have always paid the fees on time, which means my children will no longer be sent home due to fees. Before the program, they were frequently sent home and could stay for up to a week because I was unable to raise fees on time. I am grateful to GiveDirectly because they are now able to attend school and learn comfortably. In addition to this, I also did enough shopping for food for my family. I bought enough maize flour to last us several weeks. This ensured that my family would not go hungry. My children could now eat three meals per day.

My new goal is to renovate my house by adding a single-room extension to make it more spacious. It is currently very small and cannot accommodate my children; I even have to squeeze my items to get some space. For this purpose, I intend to begin purchasing building materials such as iron sheets and building poles. I've been farming, and things are going well. I believe I'll have enough harvest to feed my family. I will no longer have to pay for food, which will allow me to save money for my home renovation project.

I am a peasant farmer, and I rely on rain-fed agriculture. However, I have recently suffered as a result of unpredictable weather patterns and climate change. As a result, I have been unable to provide for my family. Because I have no other source of income, I used my transfer to pay school fees for my four school-aged children. Furthermore, my family had small meals the day before that never satisfied them. As a result, I decided to spend $12 on maize flour, which lasted my family of six for six days. I am grateful to GveDirectly since the transfer enabled me to feed my family comfortably.

My goal has been to build a new house. However, I live in a difficult situation. I live in a small house together with my six children. Unfortunately, I do not have a bed. I am optimistic that once I build a house, my children will get a better place to spend in, and this will restore my dignity among my community members. As a single mother, I have lived with pain to see my children living in horrible conditions. Apart from the house, I have a lot of needs to respond to. These include raising school fees for the children and feeding them. Once I build a house, I shall start raising livestock such as goats and chickens because they are precious assets in our community.

I am a single mother of six children. Unfortunately, I no longer have any source of income after losing a casual laundry job I used to have. I am so poor that I cannot afford to buy a mattress, so I sleep on floor mats. I always struggle to provide food for my family because I do not have a job. So, when I got my recent transfer, I spent $20 on school fees for my four children. They have been concentrating on their studies since then. I also spent $10 on food for my family. I am overjoyed that, for the first time in many years, I am hopeful because I know I will often have food every month.

Upon receiving the funds from the organisation my most vital need was to ensure that I kept my children I'm school because I had a huge debt in school fees that I had not paid for yet and I kept begging the school administration to give me more time although it seemed they were tired of my sob stories as well. I owed the school about KES 2,600 in school and lucky enough the program wired the money to me in the brink of time. I paid KES 1,600 for my four children, leaving a balance of KES 1,000 on school fees. I could not clear the debt completely because nutrition was also a challenge, that is why I used the remaining funds of KES 1,400 and bought a bag of maize flour which contained twelve packets plus I added KES 460 from my savings to purchase a kilogram of beans and green grams.

I am so thankful to GiveDirectly because before knowing it I was struggling all alone on taking care of myself and my children with no support from my father. I would rely on doing house chores for people like washing clothes and fetching water in order to feed my family but the organisation had offered a helping hand and support for my family and I through the funds which I am grateful. My children are on school and we no longer go for days with nothing to eat. I compliment this organisation for its generosity.

I am a single mother with three children and work as a charcoal burner in order to provide for my children. The separation between me and the father of my children has been the major challenge. Besides working as, a charcoal burner, have also taken up any casual jobs within the village and I make a minimum of KES 800 in a week. Therefore, I spent my transfer of KES 1500 to buy my children a new pair of uniform and used KES 1500 to buy food for my family, which would last a week.

The difference in my daily life since I received these funds is having food for my family because most of the days we sleep hungry. I live in a small house that has neither seats nor bed. The house acts as a kitchen and a place where I share a meal with my family and sleep as well. My plan is to build a bigger house which will be two room and a verandah, buy a bed and beddings and eventually start poultry farming which is easy to start and profitable as an investment for my future.

I was working as usual digging a hole to prepare for burning charcoal when I took a break to read the received message. I asked my relative whom we work with to help me understand the message. She smiled at me and told me that had received some cash. I was happy and motivated to complete my work and head back home to withdraw the cash.