I have always had dreams of building a new three-room house for my family because the current house that we are living in is on the verge of collapsing and beyond repairs. Thanks to the Merry Go Round group in our village that I joined, I have been successfully saving a portion of my transfers that I have been receiving from GiveDirectly, and I am happy to say that I received my share of $240 this month. My plan for this year is to therefore use this money to buy building materials and start constructing our new home. I am looking forward to completing the house soon, as I have enough funds to begin the building process. Once the house is completed, my plan for the coming year is to continue saving a portion of my transfers in the same group with the aim of starting a business. When it is my turn to receive the pooled funds again, I will use that money to start a food kiosk where I can cook and sell meals to support my family. By the end of this program, I hope to have something concrete to be proud of, which is a home for my family and a reliable business that can help sustain us and my children's education. I am very grateful for the support that GiveDirectly has provided us.

My family and I are currently living in a very poor house that is on the verge of collapsing, making it unrepairable. This situation has always made me sad, and I have always had dreams and hopes of building a new house for my family so that we too can have a decent and safe place to live in, just like our neighbors. To achieve this dream, I have been consistently saving a portion of my transfers in a Merry Go Round group that we started in our village with our neighbours. Recently, I saved $60 from my transfers that I receive from GiveDirectly with the aim of using the pooled funds to build a new house. Once this is achieved, I will be very happy. As a parent, I also had to prioritize the education and well-being of my three school-going children, and to ensure they could continue their studies without interruption, I spent another $10 of my recent transfers on their school fees so that they would not be sent home to collect unpaid fees. I further spent an additional $28 from my transfers to buy food for my family to ensure that my loved ones did not go hungry. This was necessary because we did not have enough food in our home, which was a result of the poor harvest this year, which was caused by the prolonged sunny season and strong winds, hence destroying our crops. Finally, I used the remaining $4 to buy some new clothes for one of my children, adding to the ones she already had. Seeing the joy and happiness on her face was truly rewarding, and I am grateful to have been able to put a smile on her face.

In the next year and beyond, my primary goal is to build a permanent house for my family, moving away from our current mud-walled house. This has been a long-held dream, as I want my children to experience the comfort and beauty of a permanent home. Despite facing financial challenges, I have begun saving for this project and plan to continue setting aside $20 each month from my transfers and hope to start construction by November this year.

I currently live in a dilapidated mud-walled house with my family of five, and I have always dreamed of having a permanent house so my children could experience living in a better home. Financial constraints have always been a major challenge. With the transfers I've been receiving from GiveDirectly, I've been setting aside at least $20 in a savings group I joined early this year to accumulate the funds needed for construction. From my recent transfers, I set aside another $20 and used the remaining $10 to pay school fees arrears for my three children to prevent them from being sent home. I also bought food worth $4.70. I am grateful for the support from GiveDirectly and how far they have helped me come, knowing that one day I will be a proud owner of my dream house.

My currrent plan is to construct a new house for my family. The rainy season wreaked havoc on our current dwelling, necessitating repairs that could only address a part of the damage. With the cash transfers we're receiving, I hope to provide my family with a secure and comfortable home. Additionally, I'm eager to start a new business venture by opening a hotel, strategically catering to the nearby school community. Recognizing that the school regularly purchases items as students leave, I see this as a promising opportunity to generate income and contribute to our financial stability. We are all grateful for the Givedirectly transfers.

Recently, I decided to invest $90 in acquiring three goats. My idea paid off as two of them have already reproduced. Despite my current unemployment status, I've dedicated myself to farming to provide our basic household needs. The financial transformation is evident - we can now efficiently plough our farm and even set aside money for savings. Givedirectly transfers have given us relief from our struggles. Remembering the financial constraints on my husband's $17 income, primarily allocated to covering school fees, I prioritized the joy and well-being of our family. I spent the remaining $12 from the cash transfer on buying food for a delightful New Year celebration with my three children. This serves as a reminder that amidst the challenges, the support we now receive has not only elevated our living conditions but also allowed us to cherish moments of happiness and normalcy. Life has indeed taken a positive turn since the introduction of these transfers.

I have a vision to grow my business. Currently I'm supplying the pastry snacks to one school, but my goal is to expand to more locations and finally set up a physical store. I intend to improve my house, transitioning it from a temporary structure to a more strongly built brick house. I am optimistic that these advancements will provide me with the financial stability enabling me to comfortably cover my children's school fees.

We have two children in primary school, I allocated $15 to cover their school fees. Our primary source of income mainly comes from the transfers. My husband works as a casual laborer, primarily operating a motorcycle. In addition to this, I generate income by selling pastry snacks, contributing $4 to our family's finances, which I use to meet other school-related expenses. I then spent $10 to buy food for my household, since we'd been struggling to afford three meals a day before receiving the transfer. Lastly, I bought school uniforms for my children and a T-shirt for myself with the remaining $9.

As a hardworking individual engaged in farming maize, beans, and vegetables, in addition to fulfilling the responsibilities of a housewife by cooking, cleaning, and managing various tasks, I have set a goal to save $10 per month. My aim is to accumulate a total of $50, which will enable me to establish my own small business of selling chapatis. This venture will be conveniently located near my father's small cabin and when I combine the transfers with the funds that I will get, it will significantly benefit me and my family and it will also improve our living standards.

In a moment of financial constraint, I withdrew $20 and $10, I wisely set them aside in my merry go round savings. The remaining $10 was divided between my two children; one in grade four and the other in lower primary, in order to settle their school fees and also ensuring their well-being. After some weeks I went and withdrew the remaining $14 and we purchased nourishing food, which we gratefully shared and savored together. The timely receipt of this money proved invaluable, as it relieved me of my burdensome school fees debt and my children from going hungry. Thanks to GiveDirectly for their kindness.

I am a farmer, but because of the drought, we don't have enough food to sustain us. This year, I want to start a business to provide me with a second source of income. I've already picked out the location where I want to build a kiosk and sell "chapati" and tea. It is a business that moves quickly and doesn't need a lot of capital to get started. I hope to have begun it in five months and then increase it with the transfers I will be receiving in the upcoming months. It will be easier for us to meet our family necessities due to the profits from it.

I invested $30 of the transfers from the previous three months to buy a goat as a long-term investment. I am a farmer, but the last two years have been difficult for my livelihood due to a lack of rainfall. Previously, I could gather enough food to feed my family for an entire year and even have extra to sell, but now we can only survive for one month on the crop. Although my husband, who is our primary breadwinner, drives a motorized rickshaw for taxi services, the money he earns from it does not cover all of our living expenditures. The goats will therefore be a huge financial aid in the future because we will sell a few of the young ones if we are in a financial constraint. I used $13 to buy groceries for the family and $35 to pay off the debt that our children owed the school in order for them to be enrolled for the new academic year. In addition, $24 was spent on preparations for my late sister's burial. We are grateful for how much simpler it has been to pay for our home needs thanks to the monthly transfers.

In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well by making sure that they visited every household within my village and enrolled every deserved individually accordingly. Currently, our lives have transformed in such a way that the majority of us now have livestock, our children are now in school and at least we can afford a meal unlike before whereby we could skip meals for days. I, therefore, do not see anything that GiveDirectly did not do well.

I spent part of my recent transfer to settle the arrears of $20 for my two children who are currently in grades one and three respectively. They have been on and off because of the pending balance which had accumulated. This has been frustrating me a lot to an extent of experiencing sleepless nights. I am now happy to see them back in school studying without any difficulties like before which is also an assurance that they will thrive so well in their upcoming exams. With the remaining amount of money, I have been buying food for my five family members which took us almost a weeks time.

Together with my family, we started chatting before going to bed. My phone beeped loudly, notifying me I had received a text message. I was surprised when I realized I had received my first transfer. I ululated at the top of my voice, attracting the attention of every member of the family present. I broke the good news to them and showed them the message, too. They all reached out for their phones and we all celebrated in harmony.

Paying school fees for my children is the biggest difference the transfer has made in my life. Often my children would stay home because of school fee arrears. Receiving the transfer was a tremendous boost in ensuring that my children will go back to school just like their friends.

I spent much of my transfer on paying school fees for my two children in primary school. Two weeks before receiving my transfer, they were sent home due to school fees arrears. It forced them to stay at home as their colleagues went to school because I had no money to pay. I am happy and at peace that they are now back in school after clearing all the school fee arrears. Besides paying school fees arrears, I bought food worth KES 1000 for the family. My husband has struggled to provide food on a daily business for the family. The high cost of fuel and customers attributes this to prefer to use cheaper means of transport, i.e. “matatu” instead of “tuk-tuk”. This makes him earn very little and unable to provide for the family fully.