"I am a farmer. I cultivate crops such as maize, pigweed, and spinach. But with current drought we are facing, I can no longer farm due to shortage of water. I ventured into other business selling timber which gives me a profit of $20 a week. This money is spent on food for my family. I have seven children, all attending school. My husband sells traditional medicine and the income he gets from his business is spent on paying school fees. The money we generate is not enough to take care of all our needs, and sometimes, we accumulate a lot of debt from school fees to food. With this transfer, I was able to pay all the debts which were $170, bought clothes for myself and the children that cost $30, and bought food with the rest of the money."

"I bought a cow worth kshs 15,000. This is because all my 4 children really love milk. So I prefer to have the cow than to be buy milk. Incase of excess milk, I can also sell some. My 2 children had a school fees balance of kshs 10,000 and so, I cleared it. My house needed repair. I bought 7 bags of cement @ kshs 700. I bought sand worth kshs 2,000 ,floor tiles worth kshs 3,400 and paid kshs 3,000 for labour. My husband is a casual worker and recently he has not been lucky to be called for any job. So I was the one buying food mostly but in small portions. I would buy maize flour, vegetables and water using this money. Approximately, I spent kshs 16,800 on food."

"What made me happy is receiving this money. It has boosted me big time. This is by getting a water tank and buying food for my family among other things. I therefore do not have any complains at all but to say a big thank you."

"Our family has saved a lot of time and energy by not having to go to the river every day, and the water is now cleaner and safe for us to drink thanks to the $320 water tank I was able to purchase with my second transfer. This tank holds enough water for domestic use as well as for the cows to drink. This water tank will also be very important because it will allow me to undertake irrigation in the event of little or no rain. I used the remaining $210 to pay off a sizable school debt that had accumulated over two terms for my two high school students."

"I want to start a business. We can no longer farm because of the lack of rain, therefore we must work several jobs to supplement our income. This will be a supermarket store. Last but not least, I want to build a water tap, sell water to the neighborhood, and install a water pump."

"Since I opted to take the livestock investment way, I added five goats for $150 when I received the second transfer. Currently, I have nine goats and some are almost to procreate. This will multiply the number of goats hence making the investment reliable. I am very happy because I started small but I am now seeing the investment growth. I also paid $34 school fees for my four primary school children who had been given the notice to pay the arrears before they are sent home. Thereafter, I bought a bicycle worth $90. The aim of buying the bicycle was to aid me in fetching some water. The distance from home to the water point is very long due to water scarcity and it was inconvenient, tiresome, and time-consuming for one to go on foot. For the remaining amount, I decided to keep it for the family's upkeep because hunger had taken us in the wrong direction. Getting food for a whole week was a miracle. Since receiving the transfer, We are happy as a family because we have been accessing food throughout."

"Our biggest fear and challenge is water that comes from up hill and hits our house directly. It even destroyed our wall. This happened last year in July. We also face a challenge of not having enough food to eat especially now that we have a very large family including grand children and yet others are yet to come from school. Since we do not have enough money, educating all our children is really hard as we always try to send them to schools but lack enough funds."

"I spent my third transfer on the purchase of 20 bags of cement for the plastering of the newly constructed house that I have built from my first and second transfers. Also, I paid $100 USD for my daughter first semester school fees and used the balance to pay for the workmanship of my house which I have built. It has been my desire to build a new house for my family and I, since the old house is no longer in a good condition. My first house was built with thatched-roof. The roof leaks too much. Whenever it rains, my family and I spent our entire time throwing water out of the house. I am tired of living under a leaking thatched roof. So I spent my most recent transfer on the completion of my new house."

"I plan to connect tap water in my compound. I'll used this water for watering my vegetables that I'll have planted. I also intend to sell the water to the people within my locality. I also plan to start a retail shop business for my wife. The income from both the shop and water shall help to pay school fees for my children."

"Hunger and water scarcity is the greatest hardship in my household. To properly feed the family of 14 (4 adults and ten children), the breadwinners need to spend at least $7 on food and $1 on water. However, earning this amount is never guaranteed from the charcoal-burning practice, which is our main source of income. Sometimes when things get tough, I persuade the shopkeeper to give me food on credit with a promise to repay later when I get money. By the time I received the transfers, I owed the store $10 and I had to clear it. Also, my family had been starving for the previous two days and I had to use the remaining amount on food and water. Am glad that we have not missed meals to date courtesy of the transfers. "