"The biggest Hardship I have faced is payment of school fees for my 2 children in secondary level. I am suppose to raise around 30,000 KES yearly and other school necessities. I am not strong enough to do casual jobs since I was diagnosed some years back. I only depend on doing less straining job like doing milk trade but I do not have enough capital. The income I generate can only meet family basic needs and may be pay half school fees for my children. Currently as we speak I still have fee balance of around 23,000 KES."

"I am a widow and the sole breadwinner for my family of 6. The only source of income that I have ever depend on is charcoal vending, a job that usually earns me 3000 KES per month. Imagine this little earning to be shared among the very basic needs like food, school fees, and clothing, it has never been enough. This has forced us to live a desperate life and I always feel ashamed in the village especially when I lack food for my children. Therefore, financial instability has been the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life."

"Receiving this money will mean a lot. I have a family of seven that needs to be taken care of. I will use KES 20,000 to repair my house because the roof is leaking and the walls have been washed away by the rains. I plan to use KES 15,000 to pay school fees for my two children who cleared school and has not been given his certificate because of the fees arrears and another one who is in fourth form. I plan to add one cow with KES 30,000 so that it can supplement the milk that I sell."

"The biggest challenge I have faced is raising school fees for my four children. I am a peasant farmer with no regular income. We live each day as it comes, other times we get other times we do not. Such kind of life is not easy, I am always worried about the next day, my thoughts all days are about where to raise money to educate my children. I have done several fundraising to raise money for school fees and I am afraid I cannot do anymore."

"Receiving this money means a life free from debts. I defaulted in my medical insurance fund cover and my wish has been to clear the bills first yet I am not sure how much to clear. The remaining cash will help me settle the school fees arrears for my school-going children who are in different levels of their studies; 3 are in primary and 2 are in the secondary level. In total, I am required to pay an estimate of KES 20,000. Even though we have one dairy cow which we rely on for domestic use, what we get (approximately 2 liters a day) is not enough to cater to a family of 9. All these have given me sleepless nights because I have been wondering where to get the cash to settle the huge amount of debts. Having you around (Give Directly) depicts a renewed hope."

"The biggest hardship that I've faced is lack of food , it has been hard for me to provide for them since I am a single woman , sometimes I struggle to raise school fees for them too"

"Receiving this money means self employment for me. I had a small business of selling second hand clothes. The business was doing good. I could earn as much as 400 KES per day. My husband lost his job. He was working in Kongowea as a vegetable seller. Things became very tough when he lost his job. Buying the basic needs such as food became a challenge. This forced me to use the capital that was keeping my business running to meet the needs of the family. Eventually, my business collapsed. I have never made a come back due to lack enough money. I have tried to search for an employment to atleast cushion us from the challenges we face but I am yet to succeed. I tried selling fried fish in the village but the business failed. I was not getting enough customers. I intend to use the money I will be receiving to revive my business of selling second hand clothes. I will infact build a small house for the business instead of hawking. I will be sourcing the second hand clothes from Mombasa and come resell them in my village. Based on my experience of this business, I will be earning atleast 200 KES on a bad day. This amount will help us as a family. I will be able to buy food, clothes and also meet other family expenses such as school fees and medical bills."

"Receiving this money means self employment for me. I worked as a vegetable vendor in Mombasa from 2004 to 2018. I used to buy vegetables in our village and resell them in Mombasa at a reasonable profit. The income I was getting sustained my family of 5 children for all those years. In 2017, I started operating at a loss. There were no enough vegetables being produced in the village. I was not meeting the demand of my customers. The income started running low. I finally decided to quit the job in 2018. I went back to the village from Mombasa. Life started becoming tough. I could no longer fully meet the needs of my family because I had no constant income. We were only depending of farming. I could sell cassava to my neighbors and use the money to pay fees for my children. Early this year (2021), I decided to venture into local improved chicken production after seeing my neighbor succeed in this particular business. For sure this project can take me out of poverty. The only challenge I am facing about this project is lack of funds to buy the feeds. I am planning to use the funds I will be receiving to first construct a semi intensive Poultry house. I will then be buying the feeds for the poultry. After a period of 5 months, the birds will be ready for the market. The birds will be selling at a price of 1,000 KES per bird. The income I will earn from this project will play a very big role in changing my life. From this income, I will pay school fees for my children, sort all the needs of my family and expand the project. I will no longer be dependant on any employment."

"Receiving this money means a new life to me. I am a primary teacher in a local primary school in the village. I have a family of seven children. Two are in university, one in college, one in secondary school and three in primary school. Raising these children has not been easy because I earn very little amount of money of less than 35000 KES. This money is not enough to pay school fees for my children and meet other basic needs. I have been depending on soft loans from friends which has made it difficult for me to make any investment for my family. Everything I get is used to service my loans and some for basic needs. I intend to use the cash transfers to pay school fees for my children. This will help me save from the income I get to buy goats that I will sell when they multiply as an investment for my family."

"Receiving this money means building my own house. For over two years I have been borrowing shelter to sleep after my house collapsed. I have a family of nine children and all of them also borrow shelter from other relatives in the compound. It is shameful at my age with all those children and still cannot afford a house for them. However, I am not able to build one because I depend on charcoal burning business which earns me less than 2000 KES a month. I have six children who are in school and need to eat and pay school fees. All the money I get is spent on these basic needs and I remain with nothing to save and build a house. Upon receiving this money, I will be able to build a one bedroom house that will cost 20000KES. I will then use the remaining amount to pay school fees and buy ten goats that I will sell in future when they multiply."