"I am living with my grandsons whom I take care of their education since they do not have any other person to depend on for their school fees and also in providing their basic needs. This has been a challenge to me because I do not have any source of income. Thus receiving this money from GiveDirectly was a great relief to me, because I cleared their school fees in advance for them to comfortably continue with their studies and also did the shopping for them. In addition to this, I also purchased ten goats at KES 26000 which I am currently rearing in my homestead. I know these goats will reproduce and increase in number. This is a saving for the future of my grandson's education since I can sell these goats in the near future and raise more money for their fees. I spent the remaining amount to pay for household basic needs such as foodstuffs and paying for some household expenses."

"I spent part of my transfer to purchase a dairy cow. This decision was purposefully to carter for the future education of my children. My husband does not work and so I thought that having a cow was the best idea since I will be able to sell the calves so as to pay their school fees. I also bought a mattress. We had an old one which was uncomfortable. I am glad that nowadays, I enjoy having a good sleep. The festive occasion which is around the corner saw me purchase clothes for my children. I want them to look decent and enjoy it. I lastly saved the rest of the money for my child who will be joining high school next year."

"The income from selling chapati's in a nearby center could barely support my family's basic need such as food . At times , we would miss meals when I had taken debts all over the village from friends and some relatives without settling them on time and I was left with no where to go . I used to empathize with myself and had the feeling of being a disappointment to my children . My life is different since I have been able to take care of my five children's school fees arrears with the transfer . On the other hand , I am glad that my children can afford three meals in a day which sounded as an luxury before ."

"Over the years , I do vegetable farming as a source of income unfortunately with limited resources . I have been practicing it in a small acreage of land which I can only sell in my village and a few other , meaning my profits have always been little . I have always desire to plant sugarcane to serve as my other source of income . This has not been possible because I lacked a start up capital . I used entirely most of my transfers to plant sugarcane which in a few months I will be blessed to harvest it . From the sales of the sugarcane I intend to pay school fees for my daughter who is yet to enroll in secondary school . Therefore , my life is different since I am hopeful that at long last my daughter is guaranteed of quality education."

"When I was in high school,my parents were struggling alot to pay school fees for me and two of my siblings.Being peasant farmers,they could not afford to pay for a boarding school for me hence I had to go to a nearby day secondary school.During weekends,my siblings and I would harvest firewood and take to school using wooden carts to cater for our fees.This was always tiresome and consumed a lot of time that I would have spent studying.It was a difficult four years but it was the only available option if we wanted to proceed with our studies.This paid off eventually since I was able to pass and proceed to the University through the Government sponsored program.This is the biggest hardship I have faced."

"I spent KES 8000 of the first transfer to purchase four goats. I am hoping that they will reproduce and increase in number with time. This will make me wealthier because the more livestock one has is equivalent to the number of cows in that homestead. I am planning to sell the offspring and pay school fees for my children's. In addition to that, I also spent KES 11000 to buy a new mattress and a bed to replace my old bedding. Apart from that, I also spent KES 15000 to buy a welding machine to help my son to do his daily workshop activities. I am spending the remaining amount to cater for my household needs such as buying foodstuffs and other households items"

"The fact that I now have my own goats in my own homestead is the biggest difference in my daily life. I opted to buy them because they would help me in paying school fees for my children. They are still in primary school, I know by the time they reach secondary school they will have multiplied hence making it easy for me to pay their secondary fees. I will be able to take them to higher learning institutions without even straining."

"The biggest difference in my daily life in the last four months preceding the current transfer is that I have developed a saving culture that I did not have before. I joined a merry go round group that we started in our village and this has enabled me to save money and bought a goat. I depend on small scale farming as a source of income at home and the income from this is only enough for the basic needs of the family. Thre was no extra money for saving in the group. When GiveDirectly started sending us the money we form a group with other village members and decided to start a merry go round to help us save some money for developments and school fees for our children. This has given me hope to still work hard for better things ahead of me. I'm so much grateful for the support it has changed our living started."

"It's been a long journey to where I am now.I dropped out of school when I was 14 years old and became a herdsman. I used to earn 20 USD in a month and life was very difficult and frustrating. This is because I was young and my peers were in school studying. I dropped out of school due to lack of school fees.I am sure that if I had completed my studies I could be somewhere better. I probably would have secured employment and having a stable source of income. I currently do a small business as well as farming. This is not enough to cater for all the family's needs given the tough economic times."

"I am glad that I own a pair of ox because I will not only help them in ploughing my farm but also to cultivate my neighbor's farms for pay hence generating an income that shall assist in educating my children . Educating my children has been a struggle for the recent past because my spouse who is the breadwinner do get meager income out of doing manual work at the construction site . This income barely sustain most of our family's needs especially paying school fees . Therefore , with these oxen it shall server as an extra source of income which motivates me since know that educating my children shall be a walk in the park because as a parent I have always envision to provide for my children a quality education . Secondly I intend to buy dairy cow in future to source for more income through selling milk to my neighbors in order to meet my family's basic needs with ease ."