"I have been jobless for long and I had plans to start my own business of raising chickens and dairy farming in order to sustain my family. My family is still young and we are expecting our first baby in two months time. We are happy that Give Directly money will help sustain our finances as we receive our baby. I will also build a spacious house."

"I spent KES 16000 of my recent transfer on buying 20 iron sheets. I bought them because I have a plan to build another bigger house. The house that I have been living in is small and hence the space is not enough to accommodate any guest visiting my household. I also bought 4 sheep at a total cost of KES 20000. The sheep are my future investment since I can sell some when they will reproduce and multiply in number. Other than that, I also bought a calf at KES 16000. I bought it so that it could also be my future investment when it calves. I had some other money with me which I had gotten from selling some of my cocks. I added the money that I got from the sales to the transfer and it helped me in paying part of my college fees. I had stayed at home for a while after finishing my secondary school studies since I didn't have money to pay for my college fees. I come from a humble background and I have many younger siblings. My parents were thus not able to send me to college. As a result, I started rearing chickens and planting vegetables to earn a living. The money that I was making from the sales of my produce was little and was only enough to sustain my basic needs. I am hence grateful to GiveDirectly for coming up with this program of helping the needy in the society."

"I am a widow and my biggest challenge is raising my four children alone. I work as a charcoal burner in order to provide for my children. My earnings are as little as KES 4OO for a bag of charcoal, which takes nearly a month for me to sell one bag. Therefore, I spent KES 400 to buy two chickens and used KES 770 to buy food for my family, which would last a week. I bought the two chickens because if I keep them for some weeks and they mature, I will sell them for double the price I bought them.  "

"I'm a mother of seven and being married in a polygamous family, life has not been easy as my husband who works as a casual labourer in a tea factory has a huge responsibility of providing for two families. Inorder to assist my husband with family responsibilities, I started rearing chicken which I would sell from time to time and pay bills. The high levels of poverty in my village attracted theft whereby some young men stole almost all my chicken and I decided to sell the remaining and quit the business. it's been harder to fend for my family through casual jobs and I have longing to come back to the business but I couldn't because of financial constraints. When GiveDirectly officer who was enrolling me asked what my goals were, I told him that I would like to start a poultry farming business. This is something that I started saving towards and I have also bought some chicken. I spend KES 1000 of my recent transfer to buy five small chicken, KES 1000 to by books and other stationaries for my children and saved the balance. I'm planning to use the savings at the end of the year to build chicken house and add more chicken."

"I was sitting right in my chicken when the message came. First, I thought it was lonestar regular message so I didn't bother myself to open it but after few minutes, I decided to see the message that came on my phone when I open my phone, I saw this Give Directly situations changing message. I was very happy and felt free from poverty."

"I'm a window and raising my four children alone after my husband passed many years ago through manial jobs has not been a walk in the park. I have been living in a single room which servers as both kitchen and main house with my children and I have never had a chance to have my privacy as a parent. Building a bigger house has been my long life dream but I couldn't manage to build it on my own. When I was enrolled in the program, my goal was to build my children a separate room. I spend my recent transfer to buy building poles worth KES 2000, chicken worth KES 500 and the balance to maize floor. I'm looking forward to spend my next two transfers to build the house."

"I have always wanted to start raising livestock. This has been difficult for me for the past 21 years because I lost all of my flock. From the recent transfer, I was able to spend KES 1,000 on buying four chickens, which are the only ones I have at the moment. This has rekindled my desire to restart my poultry farming venture. Even though the fact that I had three goats last year, they all died during the drought. I am hoping to start keeping goats once poultry farming picks up well. The rest of the transfer was used to pay a portion of my three children's school fee arrears. They are now undertaking their studies with minimal disruption."

"Initially, my goal was to start poultry farming because of the financial situation back home. After my father died, it has been a struggle to have the basic needs, especially food. My mother's work as a charcoal burner has been inadequate to meet all our needs as a family of five children. Despite of her low pay of KES 500 per bag of charcoal, she has been drained in debts in order to fulfill her financial obligations. I spent my recent transfer of KES 2000 to add four more chicken and gave my mother KES 1000 to settle some of her debts."

"The only breadwinner in the family who is my son got involved in an accident after slipping from a cliff after a heavy downpour. This left him with a fractured leg and arm, making him unable to work. In the last two weeks, my family has survived one meal per day, bought on credit from a nearby shop. I am weak and unable to work due to old age. Therefore, when I received my transfer of KES 3000, I spent KES 1000 on my son to get proper medical attention after he experienced an increase in pain from his fractured leg. I then spent KES 1000 to buy food (6 packets of maize flour, 2 kg of beans, 1kg of sugar, and a packet of tea leaves) for my family since we had nothing left after my son the breadwinner worked as a motorcycle rider “boda boda” got bedridden after the accident. Finally, I saved the remaining KES 1000 to buy some chicken next month after receiving my third transfer so that I can start a business in poultry farming and earn a living from it."

"We spent KES 46000 of our recent transfer on buying a cow that came with its calf. We bought it because we didn't have a source of milk. We have thus been incurring the cost of buying milk where we are usually supplied with a liter every day at KES 50 and we pay for it at the end of the month. One liter of milk is little and hence our children have been suffering due to a lack of milk for their consumption. We have been meaning to buy a cow but due to a lack of money, we have not been in a position to. I usually rear chickens and sell eggs to earn some income for buying essential household items such as sugar, milk, etc. My husband on the other end is casually employed as a driver. The money that he gets paid, most of it usually goes to the payment of school fees for our three children and buying foodstuffs such as maize and milk. It has thus been hard to do other developments. Other than the cow, we also spent KES 6800 on buying two bags of maize for our consumption, and with the remaining transfer amount, we used on buying some clothes for the children."