"The challenge that I am currently facing is access to clean water. I have to travel a distance for about 1 kilometer to fetch water at a borehole. When am not available at home it becomes a big challenge for my wife to go fetch water since we have three children and the youngest are twins who are a year old. This has been affecting my family's health because we are forced to drink water from unprotected wells which are closer to our house."

"It was around 3 pm while I was on my way home from fetching water when I received a confirmation message of the receipt of my first transfer. It was such a joyous moment as I knew that I had finally gotten a solution to the huge fees arrears my children owed the school. They had stayed back at home for two days and this money meant that they would be allowed back in school."

"I had just returned home from fetching water at 4 p.m. when I received the cash transfer message from Give Directly. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because my family would finally eat after a night and day of starvation due to a lack of money to buy food. The money would help lessen the hunger."

"GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build better houses and buy dairy cows. Other than that most of the people paid school fees for their children in various schools and bought water tanks for storing clean water for domestic use. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well."

"GiveDirectly does well by giving money to the poor in the community to build a better houses, and pay school fees for their children in various schools beside this some have purchased water tanks for storing clean water for drink and domestic use. I do not find anything that GiveDirectly did not do well because The enrollment was done well."

"I depend on my daughter who runs a small kiosk business selling vegetables. Previously, I earned a living through raising of livestock. The drought that has lasted for over three years now, killed most of the livestock. My source of income was lost and I cannot provide for the family. When I received my recent transfer, I spent KES 1000 on buying five packets of 2kg maize. We did not have any food left in the house and were just surviving on a cup of hot water and some wild fruits. Besides buying food, I bought a goat at KES 2000. Having lost so many livestock before, I want to start all over again and accumulate wealth through rearing the goats."

"I work as a farmer and provide all of my family's income. It's challenging to provide for my family now that I no longer work on the farm due to the drought. Given that I didn't finish secondary school and don't have any academic credentials, finding other work is really challenging for me. I currently rely on manual labor to build houses, fetch water, and carry large amounts of stock to the market. This job pays so little that I cannot provide my family with multiple meals. We frequently have to go without food or, worse yet, sleep on an empty stomach in order to survive. I, therefore, spent the entire KES 3,000 on food for the family, so when I got my first transfer, I was ecstatic."

"Working as a mason during this drought period has been challenging for me because of the scarcity of house construction jobs. The water shortages in these times discourage most people from building houses because of the high cost of sourcing water from the pans, which are miles away. So, in a month, I can only work for seven days where am compensated KES 800 per day. With the overwhelming burden of responsibilities on my shoulders and rising commodity prices, this income barely fulfills all household needs like food and school fees throughout the month. In fact, by the time I received transfers, my two primary school children had missed classes for two days due to overdue tuition fees. I used KES 700 from the transfer to cover the balances and they happily resumed classes. I also used KES 200 to buy tree poles to repair a hole on one wall of my house that had been created by heavy rains. Since hunger is a major concern in the household, I handed the remaining amount to my wife to budget for food."

"Working as a mason in my neighborhood is very stressful during the drought season because of the scarcity of water, which discourages many people from building houses. As a result, jobs are scarce, and I end up working at most two days a week for KES 800 per day. Despite the fact that my four brothers and I all actively contribute to household demands, we barely earn enough money to guarantee daily meal consumption for the family of nine. In fact, the household had run out of food the night before I received the transfer. So, I spent KES 700 on food, which has lasted the family to this day. The remainder of the funds were automatically utilized to repay a debt I had received through a mobile money service that provides soft loans. I had borrowed roughly KES 400 to help pay for my brother's transportation to Mariakani to search for employment."

"I spent a huge portion of my first transfer on buying timber, iron sheets and nails which cost a total of KES 27000. This was purposeful for the renovation of my house since it had an old leaky roof. I was so worried and frustrated whenever it rained because my properties would get damaged and we could be rained on till dawn. This situation has regularly been affecting my two children because during those moments they were unable to study at night. Therefore their academic performance would drop day by day. I am so happy that after renovating it I have noticed a big change, especially in their performance because there are no more hitches concerning the house. Also bought a water tank of 280 litres at KES 2500. It has been of help, especially to my wife, she can now store water for future consumption. I also paid fees of KES 2000 for my kids in primary school to avoid being sent home. Additionally, I purchased two goats at KES 8000 which serve as my long-time investment. Finally, I used the remaining cash to buy food for my three family members."