This year, my aim is to set up a vegetable business by the roadside. Given that my husband's income is insufficient, I plan to utilize the upcoming transfers for this venture. Establishing an additional source of income will bring me peace of mind, knowing that my family will be well-provided for. I am thankful for this opportunity to transform my life and look forward to a brighter future.

I earn a living by selling fish to support my family of seven. Although my husband works as a driver, his job is seasonal and doesn't always provide enough income. Previously, we struggled to pay school fees, often resulting in our children being sent home. Fortunately, our situation has improved. We can now comfortably afford school fees, ensuring our children continue their education. Additionally, I use part of our transfers to cultivate land, ensuring food security for my family. From the transfers received, I allocated $25 to purchase clothes for my children for the Christmas festivities. Another $9 was used to buy food for our family. Additionally, I settled a debt of $58 for my children's outstanding school fees before the new term began. The remaining amount was saved in our local savings club for future emergencies. Receiving these transfers brings me happiness as they have greatly assisted us in our daily lives.

My husband was employed as a truck driver till September 2022 where his job laid him off. We depended on him to take care of our main financial needs in the house. His being out of work affected us greatly as I was noe required to pay for the children's school. My hope has been to start a grocery stall and a small hotel where I would sell my pastries and other food items. I am still hoping my husband is able to secure another job so I can go back to saving for this dream.

I am a mother of five children, four of which are school going. Two are in form one while two are in class 6. I have had to ensure they have access to education without issues of them being turned back home for school fees. I used $30 from my July transfers to pay school fees for the two in form one as they had a huge fee balance, in August I reduced the balance for one who has a higher fee balance by $20 and in September I paid $15 to the other form one student's school fee from my transfers. I also paid school fees for my other children in August $6 and $2 in September to ensure they could sit for their exam. I had a huge debt that I was also able to settle in September $15. My youngest was also able to get some warm clothes since it had been raining in July from my July transfers at $3.5.

Initially, I had a strong desire to start my own vegetable-selling business. However, when my husband lost his job, it became difficult for us to gather the necessary funds to get the business off the ground. Additionally, with our main source of income disrupted, I have had to allocate the cash transfers we receive toward covering the basic needs of our household. Although the current circumstances have temporarily hindered this plan, I maintain hope and resilience in working toward achieving it. My ultimate goal is to see my children through all elementary levels of education and I believe that the proceeds from this venture will help fund the education of my children.

The financial situation has become challenging since my husband lost his job as a trailer driver, and his current casual jobs are insufficient to meet the needs of our household, considering we have four children attending school. Despite my initial aspirations to start a vegetable-selling business, the loss of my husband's job dashed those hopes. Currently, any funds I get are directed toward covering essential household expenses such as school fees. This is why I utilized $30 from the cash transfers to partially pay off the school fees for my two children, and although it wasn't enough to cover the full amount, I am glad that it has reduced the instances of them being sent home from school. After that, I spent $4 on purchasing food, particularly sugar.

My main objective for this year is to make sure that my children stay in school and continue their education. Two of my 4 children are starting secondary school, and the other two are in primary school. All of them have significant financial difficulties related to their tuition, but I am confident that the funds from the transfer will significantly contribute to my ability to keep them in school. My fervor and drive to see them pursue their goal of becoming doctors will drive me even harder and ensure they have a supportive learning environment.

When the results for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations were made public in December of last year, I was overjoyed to see that both my son and daughter had successfully passed them. Since then, I have struggled to find peace of mind because I am unable to fully raise their tuition fees. I don't make nearly enough money from selling food to cover both of our children's needs for school. My husband lost his job as a result of his employer's workforce reduction. I am appreciative of the transfer because it gave me a significant financial boost to enable me to purchase school uniforms for my two children, who will be starting secondary school the following week. In addition to purchasing the school uniforms, I also bought $4 worth of food to help my family get through this challenging time when my business is struggling and we are having to skip some meals because of a lack of funds.

Initially, I had plans to start up both a grocery and a roadside food store business because I do not have any source of income. This motivated me to join a monthly rotating savings group within our village. We are seven members, and we have since then been saving $20 monthly. Unfortunately, I have a nine-month-old son who has been unwell since birth. We do not have a stable household income and thus we could not afford a qualified doctor to diagnose what he was suffering from. When I earned my share of $80, I spent $50 on both the doctor's fee and his X-Ray. Unfortunately, he was referred for a surgery that will cost $150, but we are glad we know his condition, and we shall not spend more money on pain relievers as was the case previously. We are currently working on ways to raise the $150 for his surgery. The remaining $30 we spent on both foodstuffs and our clothes.

In my opinion, it was a nice thought of GiveDirectly to provide support to us through cash transfers. Most people are more empowered since we were also allowed to decide on how to spend our transfers. I would not be talking about owning a business had it not been for the support. Other people in our society have taken their children to school while some have improved their nutrition. There is nothing I can say they are not doing right but appreciate their support.

When we received the second transfer, eight of us from the same compound formed a rotational savings and loaning group where we shall be saving KES 1500 whenever we receive our transfers. I fully rely on my spouse who owns a truck for transporting goods but it does not make me comfortable because he can not provide for everything I need. I would wish to be independent. Therefore, when I earn my shares I will use them to start up a business of buying most of the green groceries from the nearby town and selling them within our local market. Out of the KES 1500 that was left, I spent KES 1000 on some clothing for my six-month-old baby and purchased a few foodstuffs for KES 500.

I was at home attending to my new born when I received a message notification from my phone. Since I'm illiterate, I couldn't read it for myself and I called my son to read it for me. He told me that me that it was a cash transfer message from GiveDirectly and I was so happy to have received the transfers. I needed the money at this time because there was no enough food at home.

At had gotten to a point where I couldn't afford to provide my family with three meals a day. I'm thankful that with the monthly transfers, this is very possible and my young children doesn't have to sturve anyone.

About a year ago before I was blessed with my 5th born, I used to hawk food in my neighborhood and this used to earn me some income which I was supporting my husband with family responsibilities. I thank God I have supportive husband who works as a driver for he has been providing for the family ever since I gave birth to our last born. The standards of living seems to be rising everyday because of prevailing tough economic conditions in my country and it's been tough for him to keep up with his KES 14000 monthly salary. He has to pay his monthly rent since he stays in the city, pay school fees for our four children, providing us with basic necessities and have money for his upkeep. When I gave birth, we didn't have enough money to buy baby clothes, after receiving the transfers, I spend KES 650 to buy some second hand clothes for the baby. I spend the balance of KES 550 to buy five 2kg pack of maize floor because we only had one pack remaining at home. That's going to push us for at least two weeks and I'm really thankful for the support.