In the coming year and beyond, I aspire to buy livestock. When I enrolled in the cash transfer program, my initial desire was to own a goat. However, the constraints of fees and food for my seven children hindered me from realizing this goal. I am delighted that we recently harvested maize produce from our farm, providing my family with food for the next couple of months. I want to leverage this opportunity to start buying goats. I am confident that selling them in the future could help meet urgent needs, such as school fees, and alleviate some of the hardships we face.

My husband, Shikari, is the family's breadwinner; however, he struggles with sight problems that limit the kind of work he can do to make a living. Most of the time, he supports me in charcoal making. Currently, this practice does not generate enough funds to cover both school fees for our seven children and provide daily meals. The cash transfers have become a crucial supplement and source of income, alleviating some of these financial needs. Upon receiving the cash, I typically allocate $20 toward paying school fees for my children, either to settle pending debts or to pay in advance. I want to ensure that they are not sent home due to unpaid tuition arrears. The remaining $14 is usually spent on other household needs, such as buying food and toiletries. Before our recent harvest, the cash played a vital role in purchasing food, ensuring that my family had at least one meal per day. I am extremely grateful because these funds have been a lifeline, brightening up our lives.

Looking ahead to next year, I plan to use the upcoming two transfers to buy new school uniforms for my four children in upper primary classes. Some of their current uniforms are tattered, and the school has requested a change to new clothing upon resumption, or else they will be sent back home. Furthermore, when the cash transfers end, I aim to have bought goats. Financial constraints in recent months, such as covering food and school fees, hindered me from acquiring goats. I am determined to have purchased at least some goats by the end of the transfer period, as they will play a crucial role in supporting my children's education. When they finish primary school and need funds for junior high school enrollment, the goats will prove invaluable.

Every month when I receive the cash transfers, my priority is setting aside funds for the school fees of my seven children. Despite both my husband's and I's involvement in casual jobs, particularly in charcoal making, the meager income we earn hardly covers daily meals, let alone settling school fees balances. Over the last three months, I allocated $60 to their tuition. I'm relieved that although there were days they were pulled out of class due to outstanding balances, it was not as frequent as before the cash transfers. I also spent $14 on new books for all of them, as the old ones were filled up. I used another $14 to buy uniforms for the three in kindergarten, ensuring they no longer get sent home for wearing civilian clothes. Additionally, I used $11 to buy more decent clothes for them to wear at home since their old attire was tattered. The remaining $3 went towards food. I'm grateful that the cash transfers have significantly aided in covering school fees and related expenses for my children.

My dream is to establish a clothing business because there isn't one in my village. My current job is very demanding, and I seldom get enough time to take care of myself. I will manage the business from the convenience of my compound, thereby saving money. I'm attempting to accomplish this by setting away the transfers. Having a business will allow me to pay for my children's education and provide for my daily needs without straining.

In order to earn a living, I dig out tree stumps, and life has not been simple. I am a mother of seven children, and I rely on this job to feed and educate them. I spent $75 of the funds I received to buy books for them and pay for their exams. I'm pleased that I was also able to pay off the debt that I amassed in school fees. One of my children fell ill awhile ago and was hospitalized. I spent $27 on his care. The other part of the funds was used on food along with other daily needs.

Since am majorly responsible for providing for my five children, I would like to ensure that they study without frequent interruptions to collect their school fees. The eldest is currently in grade seven, my prayer is that all of them complete high school with no major tuition problems. To accomplish this, I want to start keeping livestock and poultry, which I could sell to support the education requirements. 

Coming from a polygamous family, my husband is heavily occupied to provide for both families. Not to entirely depend on him, I mostly take on charcoal burning to fulfill the needs of my five children. Recently, I spent $15 to reduce an overdue school fee debt, which had cost them a few school days. Although they have been sent back home today, I am happy that they studies without interruptions over the past month. Next, as the household had run out of food for two days, I used the remaining $19 on maize flour. Similarly, my December and January transfers were spent on the two items. At least, the hardships that used to burden my family previously (hunger and lack of school fees)  have been alleviated through the cash aid.

I was really relieved when I received the funds when I did, especially because my children were literally on the verge of being kicked out of school due to pending tuition fee. Therefore I immediately proceeded to withdraw the transfers and ended up spending KES 2,000 on paying tuition fee for five of my kids. I further went to ahead to use the remaining balance of KES 1,000 by purchasing five packets of maize flour because hunger was one of the biggest challenges that me and my house were experiencing occasionally.

I was grateful when I received the transaction from the organization when I did especially because I happen to have seven children who are still in school and they had actually all been kicked out of school due to the fact that I had a huge pending balance in tuition fee that I had not yet cleared. That is why immediately I received the transfers I went and used the entire funds of KES 3,000 and split it among the seven of them so that they could atleast go back to school. I was barely close enough to finish the debt in school but with what I sent I had bought myself more time to look for more money and my children could resume school.

GiveDirectly has given us an opportunity to change our lives through the unconditional transfers. I have been struggling with my family members for the longest time. Now that I have received the funds, I will make sure I better my life.

I have seven children who fully depend on both my husband and I to support them in their education and also basic needs. My husband and I have no jobs and for the longest time we have survived on casual jobs such as burning trees and selling charcoal. We earn very little from the job and this has made us struggle to pay school fees for our children and even provide food for them. Amid the struggles, they sent home my children, hence interrupting their progress in their education. Upon receiving my transfer, I spent KSH 1000 to clear part of the school fee debt so that my children would go back to school and continue learning. I then spent KSH 1000 to buy 5 chicken. The primary aim of buying the chicken was to kick start a new venture of earning an income from poultry farming. Besides buying chicken and paying school fees, I also bought food for the family to avoid starvation.

After receiving the money it took me quite sometime to find out because my phone was not working so after I took it for fixing I asked the agent who works on the mobile money to help me check out whether I had received any funds because I am barely knowledgeable when it comes to reading and technology itself and that is where I found out that I had received the money. I was so happy to be honest because my children were almost being sent away from school and yet I had nothing on me, so a huge burden was most definitely lifted.

This transfers have played a huge role in my life because now I have help especially when it comes to matters concerning finances. I managed to afford a meal unlike other times where my kids and I go to bed hungry. it makes me feel so disappointed when I cannot provide such basic needs like a meal and school as it would any parent. Therefore I am very grateful and honored for this opportunity.

After receiving the money well I had a couple of things that I needed to take care of in my house and therefore after I received the money I went ahead and bought three packets of maize flour since we barely had any food in the house which cost me KES 375 and it was accompanied by other kitchen material which included a quarter kilogram of sugar which was KES 60, two loaves of bread which was KES 100 and sardines, cooking oil and tomatoes which accumulated to around KES 150. My children had gone a long time without having a modern breakfast like tea and bread because I had no money so that is why I included to purchase them because I knew they would really be happy about it. I also took a portion of what was left and paid tuition fee for two of my kids out of the seven that I have, giving them KES 200 in total so that they would stay in school. Unfortunately as we are speaking now the other five have been home for the past week because I am completely broke and cannot afford to pay their fees. I cannot necessarily rely on my job because I get paid to farm on people's land and it is barely enough to cater for all of my families needs. Lastly I bought body lotion for KES 50 and laundry detergent for KES 100.