In the coming year and beyond, my biggest goal is to build a good, secure house because the one I currently have is in poor condition and on the verge of collapsing. It has been a constant worry, and I know my family deserves better. To make this dream a reality, I have committed to saving $10 monthly from my transfers. It may take time, but I am determined to steadily build towards a safer, more stable home for my family. This goal is more than just shelter; it’s about giving us the security and peace of mind we’ve long needed.

I am a widow with four children, and I rely on charcoal burning to provide for my family. With the last three transfers I received from GiveDirectly, I saved $30, as I always try to save at least $10 each month. I am determined to build a new house because the one I currently live in is on the verge of collapsing, and saving up for this goal is crucial for my family’s future. By putting away this money, I am slowly but surely getting closer to building a safe and stable home for my children. After saving, I paid off a $30 debt at a local shop where I had been buying food on credit. Clearing this debt was important, not only to keep good relations with the shopkeeper but also to ensure that I could be trusted to borrow again if needed. I also spent $37 on food to keep my family well-fed, and $5 went toward buying medicine because I was not feeling well and needed to visit the chemist for some tablets. These transfers have helped me cover both immediate needs and long-term goals, making life a little easier and giving me peace of mind.

I have dreamt of owning my own piece of land and building a house on it and call it my home for a very long time and I am excited to say that I have made quite a progress on this dream. By saving my previous transfers, I was able to accumulate a substantial amount and used it to purchase a plot of land. Seeing this dream come to fruition fills me with a deep sense of accomplishment. With the land now in my possession, I have begun building my own house. However, this has proven to be a challenging because I do not have the required money for building all at once. To get over this challenge, I plan to continue saving my transfers, and once I have accumulated a substantial amount, I will use those savings to complete the construction of my new home. Once the house-building project is finished, I intend to shift my focus to acquiring goats using my transfers hoping that they will multiply and increase in number and value over time. In the future, I can then sell them to generate income that I can rely on during difficult times. This livestock investment will serve as a valuable safety net, ensuring that I have a sustainable source of support especially once this project comes to an end.

Our community is currently facing a severe hunger crisis due to the ongoing drought. I therefore made the decision to use $60 of my recent transfers to buy food so that my family would have access to the nourishment they needed to keep strong and healthy during this trying time and ensure they do not go hungry. I am also in the process of building a house on a new piece of land that I acquired using previous transfers that I have been receiving from GiveDirectly and so I have been saving my transfers in my local savings group. This time, I allocated $30 of my transfers towards this savings initiative with the aim of using the pooled funds to complete the construction of my new home, providing my family with a safe and comfortable living space. I am hopeful that these plans will come into reality as it has been my dream to have my house in my own space of land. Finally, I spent the remaining $12 of my transfers on essential personal care items such as soap and body oil to ensure that my family and I can maintain proper hygiene and feel confident in our appearance.

I am planning to save my transfer to build a new house because my current one is in very bad shape. It is too small and the roof is weak. It was built using palm leaves, which have been leaking and could be easily swept away in case of heavy rain. To achieve this goal, I have joined a merry-go-round where I save $10 every month. I plan to use the savings to buy building materials, starting with iron sheets and building poles. I want to experience the comfort of living in an iron-roofed house after spending most of my life in a thatched house.

I have been living in a small and fragile house with a roof made of palm leaves which need frequent replacement. To achieve my goal of constructing a new and decent house, I have decided to save $10 per month in a merry-go-round. My plan is to use these savings to buy iron sheets and building poles and construct a spacious house. Apart from this, I used some of the money to clear some debts that I had accumulated while buying food on credit. Due to lack of food in my household, I had to buy food on credit, but now I am relieved to have cleared a debt of $10. The remaining amount was spent on purchasing cereals and other foodstuffs. I have been struggling with food challenges for some time and there were days when I skipped meals. However, with the recent transfers, I was able to buy enough food to last me for a while. Now I am comfortably enjoying three meals a day, which was previously impossible due to financial hardships. Knowing that I will be receiving monthly transfers has given me hope that I will not have to worry about food despite my financial difficulties.

Collaborating with my four children, we combined our transfers to purchase a piece of land. My primary objective is to develop this property by constructing a house for myself, as I am currently residing in my brother-in-law's home. I have diligently set aside a portion of my transfers to work towards this goal, and I intend to allocate future transfers to facilitate the construction process. The prospect of having my own house holds great significance for me, providing a sense of freedom and independence. I am genuinely pleased with this accomplishment, considering it seemed unattainable before.

I engage in farming during the rainy season as a means of earning a living. Prior to the coming of this project, my livelihood relied on selling firewood and undertaking casual labor to sustain myself. I am delighted that I can now afford food without having to depend on strenuous labor for sustenance. Out of the $102 received, I allocated $42 to purchase immediate food necessities due to the high cost of living. The remaining $60 has been set aside for future use in the construction of my own house, representing a step towards securing a more stable living situation for myself. GiveDirectly has served as a source of hope for me, and I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity.

My top priority is to use a significant portion of my transfer money to repair my house because of its current poor condition. For the purpose of repairing the roof, I intend to buy iron sheets because they are more robust. I will purchase cement, sand, and a few stones to use in the construction of sturdy walls to reinforce the mud walls. I'll feel more secure knowing that my property is secure if I have a good house. The house will be warmer than it was before, which will also benefit my health.

I'm a widow and I live in a small, run-down house with grass thatching. My home's walls and roof are both in poor shape. Rainwater is seriously leaking into the house through the rotten coconut leaves ("Makuti") I used as roofing. I must put up with the chilly and cold weather at night because the mud walls of the house have broken. My health has been negatively impacted by this. This is the reason I saved $6 from my January transfers; I'll use it to fix and upgrade my home's condition. To make a living, I primarily rely on working on other people's farms. The severe effects of the drought have rendered the farms completely useless, making this impossible at the moment. Without a source of income, purchasing food from the store at exorbitant prices is the only option for surviving. With the remaining $29, I made bulk food purchases to ensure that I wouldn't go hungry.

I do not have a house of my own. My previous house collapsed because of the weak polls. I live in my eldest son’s house as I wait to save enough money to build a new a use. From the transfer, I saved KES 1500. I plan on using the money to buy building poles, sand stones and pay off the mason who will build the house. Besides saving some money, I bought food: three packets of 2kg maize flour at KES 750, 2 packets of spaghetti at KES 140 and 3kg of beans at KES 360. I earn a living by farming. The lack of rain is a challenge because I no longer harvest nor sell any produce from the farm. This means I have nothing to eat and no source of income to depend on.

I am an old widow. My age is an impediment to my working and taking care of myself. I fully depend on my son, who works as a casual laborer, building houses in town to take care of my needs. Three years ago I used to engage in small-scale farming on small land behind my house. From the land, I harvested maize and vegetables, which I consumed as food. When the drought began, I could no longer practice farming and relied on my son to send me money for upkeep. He earns very little because his job does not work daily. When he cannot get money, I am affected too because I sleep hungry and sometimes incur debts by buying food on credit. Therefore, when I received my transfer, I spent KES 1000 on buying food so that I would not sleep hungry. In addition, I saved the remaining amount of KES 2000 so that I can build a new house. My current house is in a dilapidated condition and soon it may collapse and be homeless. 

Due to lack of money, we are used to going three days every month without food and sometimes surviving through the day with one meal. Whenever I receive funds, the priority is to put food on the table, which is what I mostly spent my recent transfers on; that is, 2000 KES. Also, I saved 3,100 KES to acquire building poles to facilitate the construction of a better house than the shed I currently shelter under. Lastly, I bought three hens worth 900 KES to rear and add to my income sources.

Having had some trial times in acquiring food, I received a shinning star in form of a 3rd transfer from GiveDirectly totalling to KES 3000. I split the amount in two which I spent KES 1000 for food supplements saving the rest KES 2000 for building a better house to provide comfortable shelter for my family and I.

I am so glad for getting introduced to GiveDirectly because I had no hopes of even reconstructing my house but these funds have given me hope because finally I will manage to finish my house through my savings and I could not have been happier.

After I received the money I went ahead and bought maize flour worth KES 1,000 because at the time I had run out of food in my house since this year I barely had any harvest because there was no rain so the crops died. As for the rest of the money I decide to put away the KES 2,000 because I wanted to save so that I can renovate my house since almost eight months ago my house collapsed on one side which I had not had the time yet to fix because I had no money.

I received the message when I was in the farm taking care of the livestock and after seeing the message I was ecstatic because we would at least have something to eat, and not only that day but also our meals for a while would be taken care of, because the previous night my four sons and I had actually gone to bed on an empty stomach.

I have been a single mother since my children were toddlers because their father passed away, and for the most part of their childhood we suffered extremely especially financially to the point where my sons could not continue to study anymore because of lack of funds. This program has really helped us because sleeping hungry to us was almost normal but with the transactions I receive I manage to acquire meal for us because apart from I sustain my family by walking for long distances and selling firewood and my sons chip in when they can because they are palm wine tappers but for most days the pay is not sustainable.

After receiving the money my first thought was nutrition for me and my family, so I sent my son to the store to get us a sack of maize flour which contained twelve packets of the flour which sold for KES 1000 and this would last my family quite sometime before we thought about when our next meal would be. The remainder of the money I bought a hen that I planned on rearing and then maybe later on get some more poultry, so it cost me KES 200.