"My two sons are the breadwinners in our family. They always support the family by purchasing food and other necessities while working as a tuk-tuk driver and a fruit seller. However, because their incomes are inconsistent, what they provide cannot go beyond the bare necessities. I have been working on a house construction project for the past few weeks, but it has been stalled due to a lack of funds. My current house's poor condition prompted this decision because the roof is worn out and lets in rainwater, making it difficult to shelter under. So, when I received my transfer, I supplemented it with some savings and purchased six pieces of iron sheeting for the new structure."

"I grew up from the family which practiced animal husbandry and it was easy for me to pick up the same profession from my father. Currently, with the tough times brought by the prolonged drought, livestock keeping has been a challenge, especially with the lack of water and dry season, which makes the animals prone to diseases. It has been difficult to support my family of 1O members (wife and 8 children) especially when I lost some of my livestock to diseases and famine. My transfer of KES 600 was used to buy medicine for my animals and dewormers for the chicken. I spent the remaining KES 200 on buying sugar because it’s one thing that is mostly used in my house. I saved KES 400 to buy broiler legs for the layers to hatch them because it’s cheaper to have them hatched than buying the chicks."

"I have been suffering for long time. In my life, I have not been so happy like the way I am now. With this money from Givedirectly I will be able to build myself a new house for the comfort of my family and I. We have been going through so much difficulties due to the condition of my recent house that I am living in with my family. During the rainy seasons we placed pans and tubs all over the place to to stop the spread of water that flows from the leakages. I am so much happy for this money because it is going to be used to change my life condition positively in the future."

"Three months ago, my husband who is a mason was arrested while working for employer who was building on an illegal land something that he was unaware of. Then, I was a house wife and things took a different difficult turn because I had nothing to give my children or bail out my husband. I started fundraising towards bailing him out but because I couldn't raise the required amount, I borrowed some money to top up. Eventually, he was released and came back home awaiting to get a job. I have been spending my last three transfers to pay debt and provide food and water for my seven children. The money has not been enough to pay all the bills and I resulted to buying food on credit from my shop keeper. Having one meal per day became our new norm as the money couldn't afford us three meals as the bigger percentage would be spend to pay debt. I have also accumulated huge fees arrears which I'm looking forward to redeem with my next subsequent monthly transfers."

"It was early in the morning when I left home to the lake to fetch some water leaving my phone in the house. I left it because I usually do not have early morning calls. When I returned at around 7am, I found a message on my phone. Upon checking, this was the best message I have ever received. It was the promised transfer of KES 55000.00 from GiveDirectly. Due to the happiness that engulfed me, I knelt down and prayed a thankful prayer to the Almighty God for connecting me with GiveDirectly."

"Two weeks before receiving the transfer, were the most challenging I have ever faced. I spent most of the days (4 days every week) sleeping on an empty stomach, surviving on water and some wild fruits. I work as a casual laborer selling charcoal. The demand for charcoal within the village is currently low and I spend over two weeks before I sell a single bag of charcoal. Due to a lack of a stable income source, I am forced to reduce the number of meals from three to one per day. Therefore, when I received my transfer of KES 3000, I spent it on buying 12 packets of maize flour, 2kg of sugar, 2kg of beans, and washing detergent for my clothes."

"There have been droughts in my area and water has been scarce. So, when I got my transfer, I used it to buy water and food. my husband, who works as a tuk-tuk operator, has not been making much due to the hiked fuel prices and the Ramadan celebrations. Most people are opting to stay indoors. This has resulted in reductions in the number of customers and thus fewer earnings. I, on the other hand, had to close my street food vending business due to the high cost of living which made me incur losses. For this reason, we could not afford to buy food live alone buying water which now goes for 120 liters at KES 300."

"I am a charcoal manufacturer and I also sell fish. Collectively, I earn around KES 4,000 although this is not consistent. From it, I get to fend for my two children and wife. To manage meeting most of our needs, I normally ensure I make weekly savings of KES 400 in a merry-go-round. When it is my time to collect the contributions, it also comes with a small interest which helps boost my finances. Currently, we are experiencing some droughts in our area and water has been scarce. My minimum weekly consumption of it is 120 liters, which now sells at KES 400. Unlike before where we would fetch from nearby running streams for free but they have all dried out. So, when I got the money, I used it to buy water and made some savings."

"Nutrition has been quite a challenge for me and my family especially due to the on going drought. Apart from the drought I barely have a job after I retired in accounting almost more than half a decade ago so this in turn makes it difficult to cater for some of our most important needs. My wife had to go ahead and work as nanny so that she could help the family in making ends meet. Luckily I also got enrolled to this program and when I received the recent transfers I went and bought a bag of maize flour that contained a dozen packets worth KES 1,800. I also used KES 600 and acquired sardines, cabbage, tomatoes, beans and cooking oil. After that I used KES 520 and bought six gallons of drinking water for two trip since water was scarce. Lastly I used the remaining KES 80 to purchase sugar."

"Before even getting enrolled to this program I always had the ambition of growing my farm through buying and rearing more farm animals. This was not possible at the time because I lacked the funds. But when I got introduced to GiveDirectly as saw as a chance to finally begin investing in buying more animals. Therefore when I received my recent transfers, I decided to buy a kid because the mature goats were quite expensive and not possible friendly so I could not afford one and that is why I opted for a baby goat. The owner sold me the kid for KES 2,000 and I was left with a balance of KES 1,000. Since they was barely enough food in my house and I could not rely on farming due to drought, I decided to purchase half a dozen packets of maize flour for KES 720 and then used the remaining balance of KES 280 to acquire sardines, sugar, bread and water since we were also experiencing scarcity."