"I am a father of two, one is currently in secondary school and the other is still in primary school. Raising a family of four has become a challenge of late especially with the current famine that has resulted in scarcity and rise in prices of both water and food. I do house construction and this has been our main household income, unfortunately, it cannot sustain my household anymore. Thank God, GiveDirectly came to our rescue. I have, therefore, committed KES 2000 of my transfer to pay for my children's school fees and use KES 1000 to purchase water and food. For the past three months, I spent KES 6000 on my son's school fees and used KES 3000 to purchase both foodstuffs and water. This is a great boost to our household income, and I am glad I have managed to reduce a bigger portion of the fee arrears."

"Upon receiving the second transfer, I had a lot lined up that my household had set to complete before exhausting the entire amount. I had a piece of land to plough and also obtained farm inputs at KES 6500. Buying foodstuff has been very expensive and farming has the cheapest way to feed my family. I also spent KES 10200 on fencing around the farm to protect the crops from livestock, constructed a wooded bathroom worth KES 4800 for my family. I also bought foodstuff worth KES 13600, enough for my family of four, paid for the county government water piping that I am now enjoying at my doorstep at KES 8000, and saved the remaining amount with a plan to still fence around my compound. We have changed a lot in our family because of the support we received from GiveDirectly."

"My area is afflicted with severe water shortage and we normally trek for many miles to get water for our daily use. My new goal was to install tap water into my compound to get rid of this problem . I had already bought piping material to achieve this but was not able to due to unforeseen circumstances. Another new goal is to inject more capital into my small snack business which has been struggling for a long time now."

"I have a new goal of buying a water tank. When I received my first and second transfer, among the things that I did was to build a new and bigger house that is roofed of iron sheets. Having built a new house, I now look forward to saving enough money through my merry go round contributions both from business and farming that would then be used to buy a water tank. It pains me a lot to see a lot of water during rainy season going to waste and me having to go for long distances to fetch water while I can harvest rain water. I have very small containers that cannot contain much water to take me through a dry season. Getting this water tank will be a game changer to me and my family. I look forward to seeing this happen before the year ends."

"For a while, I had been sleeping on the floor because I had no bed. Getting to purchase a bed was a challenge since I was living from hand to mouth. My main job was making and selling charcoal which was not a reliable source of income. When I got the second transfer, I bought a modern standard bed and a mattress for KES 10000.00 each. I am happy nowadays because I sleep comfortably not like before. I also bought a water tank of 240 liters capacity and nine buckets for storing water. These water storage items cost me KES 4800.00. I did this because we are facing water scarcity in our area. Thereafter, I bought five chickens for KES 1000.00. I aim to rare and sell them after they have multiplied. Since our area was affected by drought, I kept the remaining amount for family use."

"When I received and withdrew the second transfer, I first did some agriculture since I rely on subsistence farming to feed my family. I bought some seeds and fertilizer to boost my farming for proper production. I also bought a water tank of capacity 240 liters and 10 buckets for KES 3500.00. I bought these drums for storing water because water scarcity has been a problem in our area. Apart from that, I bought two bales of maize flour for KES 4200.00 to ensure food security at home because drought hit our area and we did not harvest as we expected. Besides buying a goat for KES 3800.00, I also bought some clothes for the whole family because the ones we had were overused."

"Getting clean water was a hustle in our area. I had to travel longer distance sourcing for the same. Upon getting the second transfer, I opted to end the water struggle by buying some equipment for tap fixing. I applied to the water company and I am glad that the water was fixed and as of now I have easy access to water. I cannot tell how much I used to buy the equipment but the labor charge for the fixing was KES 5000.00. Thereafter, I paid a balance of KES 16000.00 for school fees for my child who is in secondary school. In addition to that, I renovated my toilet which was in a bad state that could not be used. I bought nine bags of cement for KES 5400.00 and three iron sheets for KES 3000.00. Currently, the toilet is functional and we are happy that by having a toilet we prevent ourselves from some diseases. Lastly, I bought a goat for KES 3500.00 to maintain the presence of GiveDirectly at my home."

"My new goal is to buy a water tank. We are faced with a serious drought problem in our area that has led to continuous lack of water within our compound. This has often forced us to travel for long distances in search of water and which has been consuming a lot of time for my children since they have to travel for long distances in search of water. Getting a water tank will bring a long term solution to this problem and will bring the much needed comfort to my family. It may be a little hard to make this happen considering that we still struggle to put food on the table for our families but I am very optimistic that just as I was able to build a new house and buy a dairy cow, one day I will be able to buy a water tank."

"I received a confirmation message that I had received my first transfer at four in the evening while I had gone to fetch water. It was such an exciting moment, I did not expect it and it came as a surprise. I immediately rushed home to share the news with my mother who was equally happy because she had just received her share too."

"The new goal that I have right now is to buy and install a water tank in my homestead. Given the perennial water shortage in my area, this will go a long way in ensuring that we are water sufficient even when rains don't come."