"I was at home relaxing after coming from fetching water at our nearby pumped water station. I received a message notification on my phone. Upon checking, I could not believe my eyes when I saw a Mpesa message indicating that I had received my transfer. I felt very happy about receiving the aid since I had no food for my family that very day. I went straight to the Mpesa shop to withdraw the transfer because I already had plans in place on how to use it."

"I had left early in the morning to fetch water. When I came back, my phone had an unread message, and because I cannot read, my son read it for me. I was happy to have received money from Give directly. My children rejoiced with me and I was eager to see my husband at work and share with him the good news.  "

"As I was on my way to the water point to fetch some water in the morning at around 8 am, I received a message on my phone. Literary, I use my phone to receive calls and make calls through assistance not reading messages because I do not know how to read. Considering this, I just ignored it and proceeded to the water point. When I returned home, I had forgotten that I had received a message and I kept the phone for other duties. At around 11 am my daughter who took the phone to call her brother saw the message box on the screen and she opened it. She screamed in happiness and came to inform me of the good news. We both danced in happiness for receiving a huge amount of money at once."

"I am a single mother of 7 children, four girls, and three boys. One of my daughters, who is 18 years old, is married. So, under my care, I have six children. Another one of my other daughters and son dropped out in class 4 and Class 3 respectively.  This is because my job as a traditional wine vendor, earned me barely enough to fend for all their needs, and for this reason, I was unable to raise funds to pay their school fees. The other four are I still too young to start school. When I got the funds from give directly, to secure the inheritance of my three sons, I bought one acre of land at KES 40000. Presently, we live in my parents' compound. Whatever amount I remained with I used to buy a mat made from dried palm tree leaves that my visitors would be sitting on, a water tank to help curb the water problem in my village. Finally, I bought some nourishment for my children and I."

"When I was returning home from fetching water, my husband quickly rushed to me to inform me that the cash transfer we were expecting from give directly had been sent.  We both celebrated as this would really help a lot, especially when it comes to our children's school fees where at the time, they had areas of KES 12000 that we did not know how we would settle."

"I am a mother of five. My husband, who sells water in the city, is often not around. Leaving me to take care of them using the KES 500 he sends weekly. Since they did not have a bed, we would all sleep together on mine and when their father visited, I would have my daughter sleep at a neighbor's house. I never enjoyed this, as it always got me worried for her. So, when I received the funds from give directly, the first thing I did was buy a bed and mattress for my husband and I. I moved the one we had to the children's bedroom and also replaced it. I then went ahead to settle their school fees arrears of KES 4000. My house never used to have electricity, so during the night, my children would strain to study using a torch with books on their laps. To provide them with the comfort of smooth learning, I bought a solar panel at KES KES 27000 and a table. The remaining amount I used to buy some food as we had run out of it."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I am currently enjoying that I have enough water for the family after constructing gutter systems around my house. I no longer have to walk 3 kilometers every day to look for water. Furthermore, I was able to construct a modern toilet at home and our sanitation has improved something that makes our lives better."

"It was early morning in my morning routine of fetching water. I left the phone with my husband, who wanted to call one of our clients who wanted charcoal to be delivered to his place. When I returned home, my husband was fortunate to break the news to me. He saw the Mpesa message, which confirmed that we were KES 55,000 richer. My heartbeat was so fast and I could not explain my shock and excitement because in my lifetime had never received that kind of money."

"Before receiving my recent transfer, I never thought about plastering my house. My planned had been to built a new house that is why I used my previous transfer to buy two bundles of zinc for the new project. However, with my recent transfer my new goal is to plaster my present house now that the raining season is here that whenever it rains the water washes away most of the mud from on the building. Therefore, I used a portion recent transfer and bought the first ten bags of cement. Additionally, I used a portion of my transfer and bought loads of sand. Finally, the remaining money will be spend as workmanship."

"I had just gotten home from fetching water from my neighbor's home when I received a message. Since I'm illiterate and couldn't read the message on my own, I called my daughter who was in the house to come and check it. I couldn't believe it when she told me that I had received the transfer because I thought that we were going to receive the transfer towards the end of the month. I was so happy because I had lost my job and I was struggling to provide for my family."