"After receipt of my second transfer, I spent KES 20,000 on the construction of a two-roomed house. I had a grass thatched house which used to leake during the rainy season. I am grateful since I now leave in a decent and spacious house. I also bought five chickens worth KES 2500 which will be of great help when I sell eggs I get the money to buy basic commodities in my household. I spent KES 1500 on buying a skyplast which I use to store water for use. With KES 8000, I bought furniture for my newly constructed house. I am happy since I have a place where visitors can sit when they pay a visit unlike before. With the remaining part of the money, I bought maize and clothes for my household members."

"I'm a single mother of two beautiful girls and taking full responsibility of providing for them has not been an easy journey. I have been operating a local mobile money transfer business "M-pesa" to provide for them but ever since COVID-19 crisis, the business has never been the same and I have been struggling to sustain it. My goal was to start poultry farming business so that it can supplement my income but financial inability has been the biggest challenge. Receiving the transfers was the biggest financial breakthrough for me because, I was able to spend KES 13000 to buy some chicken for a start and I'm looking forward to spend part of my second transfer to add more. I also added KES 26000 to my M-pesa float and spend the balance to build a semi- permanent kitchen. I received higher commission this month from my mobile money transfer business and I'm grateful that everything has started working perfectly as I expected. I'm super grateful to GiveDirectly for the support."

"I desire to start poultry farming to boost my income but due to financial constraints, I have not actualized my dreams. The income from subsistence farming goes into meeting my family of 7 basic needs and school fees for my children. Receiving this money makes me delighted because my priority is to start poultry farming. I planning to use KES20,000 to purchase fencing wire and improve the current poultry house of 60 chickens. The rest of the transfer I will use to pay school fees for my children and a dairy cow."

"With the great projects that have completely changed our living standards, I am motivated to work even harder both on the running projects as I look forward to initiating new ones. At the moment I have a new goal to venture into commercial poultry farming. I have been rearing a few chickens whose productivity has never been tangible enough to sort any major bill in the household. Expanding it and bringing in more chicken will be beneficial to my household as an additional source of income."

"My immediate neighbor usually plants different kinds of crops and my chickens have been destroying her crops. Because of this, she requested that I should not be leaving them to walk freely and I had to always feed them while inside. Due to this, they stopped laying eggs and this affected me financially since I depend on poultry keeping and subsistence farming. I am happy that the transfers enabled me to fence my farm and compound and I no longer have to worry about them not laying eggs anymore. After spending KES 29000 on fencing my farm and compound, I spent KES 14000 to buy a heifer as an investment that I can rely on in case of an emergency. I still have KES 7000 that I am planning to use in expanding our current chicken coop after spending KES 2500 on food."

"When I received my second transfer, I spent KES 9000 to buy a dairy goat. I will be using the milk that I will be getting from it for our consumption while I sell the milk from my dairy cow to earn an income. In addition, I spent KES 3200 on clothes and a pair of shoes, KES 2200 on four chickens, and KES 11500 on two goats as an investment that I can rely on in case of a financial crisis. Apart from this, I used KES 2100 to purchase three pieces of iron sheets that I will use in building a sheep pen and I still have KES 23000. I depend on casual work mainly breaking large stones into gravel that can be used during the construction of houses. This work is tiresome and needs a lot of energy and I am happy that with the investments that I have made using the transfer, I am guaranteed of a meal even without working since I can easily sell eggs and use the money in buying them."

"I am a motorcyclist (boda-boda operator) and my daily earnings are KES 600. Even though I do not have a family of my own, I find it challenging to meet my needs. It is my desire to complete the construction of the iron sheet house that I live in. Where the incomplete part is covered with polythene. I have been unable to do so due to limited finances. To fulfill this, I plan on starting poultry farming. So, using the funds I got from give directly, I bought one chicken at KES 350 the remaining amount I plan on buying two more and some poultry food. This will bring the total number to 5. I will rear them up until I have 50 chickens, which I sell, then use the profits to purchase some iron sheets that will facilitate the completion of the house construction as I invest the rest of the money in another project."

"I am married with one child. My husband works as a carpenter and I am a kindergarten teacher. My monthly pay is KES 4000. Even when combined with my husband's inconsistent salary, the amount is barely enough to cater to our needs. So, whenever we run out of money, it normally results in buying food on credit. The house we live in also has an old metal sheet roof. During the rainy seasons, we are forced to send our child to my mother-in-law's house because of the leakage. Therefore, when I received these funds, I first opted to pay the KES 300 debt I had, then used KES 500 to buy some nourishments for my family. With plans of improving my life, I used the amount that remained to start a poultry farming business. Thereby, I bought two chickens which I will rear and when they increase in number, I will sell some. From the profits, I will buy some Iron sheets for the repair of my house's roof."

"I used to be a father of one, unfortunately, my baby developed some heart problems. It became worse last year and he succumbed. This left my wife and I devastated. Even so, I never gave up. I kept working to provide for her plus improve our lives with the faith that my family will grow. Presently, I work as a boda-boda driver using someone else's motorcycle. From the profit I make in a day, I only get to keep 25% of it, the remaining amount then goes to the fuel money and the owner's share. So, when I received the funds from give directly, my plan was to start poultry farming in order to improve my earnings. To realize this, I need 10 chickens. Since I can't buy all of them at once, I started by purchasing 1 at KES 350 and the rest I will keep buying using my next transfers. I also had run out of food in my household. Thus, the decision to purchase maize flour with the remaining amount."

"When I received my transfer, I felt so good and extremely happy. I had never had such an excitement before in my life. Despite the fact that the transfer was sent when I was almost going to look after my cattle in the field, I opted to assign someone to look after them. As a result, I was able to go and look for an additional livestock, (a goat and a chicken). Thanks to GiveDirectly for its financial aid."