"I am a professional mason currently working in the village. This job is quite great as it has been my only source of income for more than a decade and I have always paid all my bills as well as supporting my mother. But all they has changed lately with the job getting too seasonal depending on the availability of water. Sadly I have noticed that whenever there's drought potential clients keep off building projects because they do not want to attract the high cost of getting water from far places. This has badly affected my income that l have been thinking of switching to keeping goats when I receive this money to keep afloat. On top of that, I also want to be using my transfers to top up school fees for my son who's in high school right now paying 35000 KES annually."

"Accessing safe and reliable water for household use is the biggest challenge that I face. At the age of 65, I cannot carry a 20-liter Jerry Can full of water on my back like I used to do previously. What makes the situation worse is the fact that I live alone with no one to send to fetch in a nearby stream. This forces me to make countless trips using a 5-liter one and this leaves me very exhausted. I have developed chest pains as a result of doing this daily and I am worried that if I do not stop it might be worse than it is."

"I have a small poultry project that I ran in my home. I am a businesswoman who earns a living by selling vegetables in the village market. My husband is a casual laborer who earns a living by building other people’s houses, fetching water, and farming on other people’s land. The little I earn from my business is used to buy food and pay school fees for my two children. Sometimes I have no money left to buy feeds for the chicken I rear. So when I received my transfer, I spent KES 1500 on buying growers' mash for the chicken. I gave priority to buying the feeds because I see this as an alternative source of income in the future that will help me earn some good income. Besides buying the animal feeds, I spent KES 1000 to buy food for the family after exhausting the food stocks in the house and had no money, and neither did my husband buy more food."

"I spent my money on buying a goat. I earn a living by raising livestock. Since the commencement of the drought three years ago, I lost over 13 livestock due to the effects of drought. The lack of grass and water points is a major challenge to the animal’s health. As a result, I fetch low prices when selling the animals in the market. I heavily depend on the sale of this livestock and I used the money to cater to my family’s needs (paying school fees, and buying food and clothes). With the few livestock left, I have a fear that I will lose all of them because of the persistent drought present in my area. I have little livestock left, and I bought the goat to add to the number of livestock and replace those that I lost."

"Receiving this money will help us acquire a water tank that we have long desired to own. We experience a lot of hardship during the dry season because we do not have a reservoir to harvest and store the water during the rainy season. We are normally forced to carry water on our backs which we fetch in a far dam, approximately 2 Km away which is tiresome and stressful.The said water is not clean and contaminated with waterborne diseases. We fear contracting these diseases, it is for this reason that we intend to buy 5000 liters water tank. It will cost us KES 39000. We will use the rest of the money to expand our poultry project."

"As subsistence farmers, this drought has affected our lives tremendously. Life a few years ago was easy since I knew I had a roof over my head, food was available on the farm, and my only concern was raising my livestock. Today, I worry about where I will get food and my livestock a lot since we both depend on food and water. We have to trek for long distances to get water and food is bought from shops. This requires us to have money, which we lack."

"I received the message alert on my phone when I was on my way back home from fetching water from our nearby water pan. I could not understand its content so I had to wait until when I reached home. Upon reaching home, I called my helper who confirmed to me that it was the transfer from GiveDirectly. I was overwhelmed with joy for receiving my transfer since I was very sure that I will be able to fulfill my ambitions in life."

"When our first born was diagnosed with eye sight problem, we couldn't afford to take him for check up because my husband who is the breadwinner had just lost his job as waiter and therefore our son dropped out of school. By God's grace, we were able to take him to local hospitals last year where he was treated and recovered. Unfortunately, we were not able to enroll him back to school because the low wages my husband was earning from manial jobs averaging to KES 500 per week was only enough for basic needs. Similarly, we were able enroll the other two children who had reached school going age. We couldn't have had a better opportunity that this to enroll them to school. I spend KES 12000 to pay enrollment fees and to get them ready for school, KES 31000 to buy two cows and the balance is what I have been spending to buy water which has become scarce and food."

"I had just gotten back home from fetching water when I took my phone which was off and switched it on, immediately, a message popped and I couldn't tell it was the cash transfer message from GiveDirectly because I was not expecting money from anyone. I was so happy as I opened the message and I couldn't keep the good news to myself as I shared it with my husband and children."

"I have not had it easy at all in the past six months. Jobs have been really scarce in the construction industry due to these droughts. People tend to avoid starting building projects when there's no proper supply of water so that they don't end up inflating cost unnecessarily. But I felt so happy when GiveDirectly showed up at our village at last! I do not know if I'm going to succeed but I'm glad I have a chance at this and might just make my dream a reality."