I opened a shop where we sell vegetables next to our house. Every time I receive my transfer, I continue to add different stocks to my shop so I can sell a variety of items. My biggest goal is to expand my business, make a huge profit, and ensure that my children study well and complete their studies on time without any difficulties.

I am a father of six children. Five of them are currently in school, and one is not of age yet. The moment I received my transfers, I spent $34 to cover my daughter's school fees as I was enrolling her for Form One. She joined Lutangani Secondary School near Bamba and opted for boarding. I am immensely grateful to GiveDirectly for their assistance.

As I said I started a retail shop business recently. My energies are directed to this business, my plan is to expand it further. Its just starting off meaning we are still trying to bring it up to a point it can self sustain. I will be redirecting most of my transfers going into this business to grow it so as to ensure my family has a source of cash to which they can depend on.

I am a young man with a young family. I needed to figure out how to make some money to ensure that my family was well taken care of. I had initially began a business rearing chicken but their was a Newcastle outbreak that lead to the loss of a large number of my broilers. I then decided to sell the rest off to reduce my losses and used the money to set up a retail shop. I have now been directing my attention to stabilizing this business. I used my entire July and September transfers to restock the business while in August I only spent $19 on the business, I used the rest of the money to shop for my house buying toiletries and some food items.

I have a small retail store business, but the income I get from it had never been enough to fully cater to my family’s needs. I have always wished to have a type of business whose income is enough without having to struggle to engage in other income-generating activities. My goal was therefore to expand it by adding more stock and I plan to save part of my monthly transfers so that when I shall have gathered around $100, I would immediately do the restocking.

I received the transfers at a time I was facing some financial challenges. Currently, we are in the rainy season, most of the people were doing farming, but on my side, I had not yet started due to the lack of finances. I need to buy seeds and also hire people to help me with the cultivation, but I did not have the money. Luckily I received the transfers from GiveDirectly and I immediately commenced my farming. Buying enough food for the family was a also another challenge owing to the fact that I have a large family of 9. I, therefore, managed to buy food worth $15 and spent the rest of the money on farming and I was very grateful to GiveDirectly for the great support because I am now assured that my family would have food even when the drought period commences.

I previously had a chicken-rearing project, but unfortunately, the project ceased as a result of an outbreak that claimed all my chicken. So my goal is to start another chicken-rearing project, I have learnt a lot from a friend who does the same and manages to bank some good income, I too believe that it will help to alleviate me from my current poverty status. I plan to save KES.1500 every month from the transfers in order to see my dreams come true.

As soon as I was enrolled in the program and began receiving the transfers, I began poultry farming. So whenever I got my transfers, I could buy chicks and chicken feeds. I ventured into this poultry farming because I did not have a job but rather relied on casual jobs while my wife has a grocery kiosk. My flock did well until recently when I had to sell out due to an outbreak of poultry diseases. However, I received my recent transfer when my brother was unwell and unable to meet his medication bills. I, therefore, spent $ 18 to pay off his medication cost. The balance of $ 16 helped me to acquire food for my family of eight members. Food is extremely scarce and expensive in our area due to the famine caused by the prolonged drought.

I used the first $30 to buy iron sheets for constructing a new chicken house and used another $30 to buy food and other basic household needs for my family. The most recent amount of $30 was used to pay school fees for one of my children who is in her secondary level of education. I am a father of six children with four already in school and two joining soon. Meeting all my family's needs with odd casual jobs of construction work has been really tough for us as a family and without GiveDirectly, things would have fallen out of hand already. When I started receiving payments from GiveDirectly, I started investing them in poultry keeping project but just when I had made a huge investment in it, the chicken were attacked by a strange disease that killed almost all of them. I have had enough time to reflect on what I did not do well in that business and right now I am saving some other cash before I could start up the project again. My wife operates a small business that help s is meet some of our family's needs as well. The situation is still very tough but we are looking forward to better days ahead. We are so lucky to have been part of beneficiaries in this life changing program. We will always be indebted to GiveDirectly.

GiveDirectly has done a great deal for me ever since I enrolled in the program. I have nothing to complain about regarding the organisation because it has really come to elevate us from situations of complete poverty and I just recently got enrolled I can see the changes. For example me paying the debt to my friend would have taken quite a long time were it not for the funds I received.

My son finished elementary school in March and after the results were our, he was required to join high-school in April. Unfortunately I have no permanent job and I rely on temporary gigs here and there to cater for my family. Now last month, my son was required to join high-school and required a bunch of items which included uniform, fees and even pock money just to mention a few items. I paid for most part of the expenses but then I eventually ran short while I still was not done with all the requirements for my son. Therefore I went ahead and asked a friend for a loan of KES 6,500 and soon after he was ready to start a new chapter of his life by joining high-school. Now in consideration with the funds from GiveDirectly, when I received them, I went on to ensure that I paid my debt so that I could deliver as I had promised my friend I would when I borrowed the money from him. I paid him the entire funds I had received which was KES 3,000 because he came through for me when I needed help the most and by paying him it would help us continue our great relationship.

I received my transfer at night when my phone was charging.The next day in the morning when I switched on my phone ,the mpesa notification caught my attention. It was unbelievable and it took me a series of checking my mpesa balance and calling some of my friends to confirm that the message was legit and not fraud.

The biggest difference in my daily life is my day to day routine which has changed.After coming from work instead of aimless wandering through the village, have shifted my energy to my poultry farming.I have also initiated a trend in my children now that schools are closed to learn on chicken rearing.I am hoping to outsource orders like my friend who trades his chicken in bulk which is more profitable.

I was motivated by one of my close friends to start poultry farming due to the profits generated, which allowed him to support and sustain his family. I have been a casual labourer in construction sites who works and earns a minimum of KES 450 per day which is not consistent. I have been thinking of a side hustle to boost my income and thought of starting poultry farming.I used my cash transfer of KES 1500 to buy 15 chickens and the rest of the money was used to buy chicken feed and vaccine.