"I received the money at around 6:30 am just when I was about to go fetch water for the day. Fetching water is my daily chore every morning. GiveDirectly had finally honored its promise of sending the money. I quickly did my chores for the money then called my husband who works away to inform him of the good news."

"I am a widow, my spouse died over 20 years ago. I gave birth to 12 children, out of the twelve kids ; four are girls and four are boys and four passed on while they were still young. I am now left with my firstborn who is mentally unwell while the others are married. My son is not in a position to afford my basic needs like food and shelter because of his condition. My ambition over the years has been to own a better house where I can sleep comfortably. This is because, I am currently living in a grass thatched house, the walls are almost falling off and water seeps from the roof during rainy seasons. I survive through charcoal work, but due to my old age (83 years), I earn less than KES 300 per week. This makes it impossible to save and build a better house for me. I plan to use KES 50000 to build a better house with two rooms and an iron sheet roof. I will also use KES 20000 to buy a modern bed and a mattress to replace the old ones that do not give me nice sleep. Receiving this money therefore means getting a new and safer house for me."

"I have long wish to have a zinc house but due to the lack of money my wish has not come true. First I want to thank God for GiveDirectly coming to this town to help with this money. When I got the money, I bought two bundles of zinc and a cartoon of nails for the renovation of my house. As you can see, the thatch on my house no longer holds the rain waters especially during the rainy seasons."

"-locust diseases in crop -soil erosion in our fields - low water drainage"

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have purchased a motorbike. We used to walk for a long distance to collect clean water for domestic uses. This was so tedious and time-consuming. I do casual jobs at the constructions site and also sometimes we have to walk for quite a long distance to those sites. This was also so tiresome. The amount of money that I would get was so small and only for household basic needs. I had no extra money to save. Currently, I have a motorbike in good condition, I can collect water for our daily uses without taking much time like before. I can go to walk without any struggle like before. we are so grateful because this has eased our daily activities. GiveDirectly has improved our standards of living."

"Drought has been the biggest hardship that am facing in my area.Currently with no rains experienced since last year we have been forced to outsource water which is costly and is quite a distance from my area.In a family of three members with a small child ,the demand of water is high and yet not affordable.On daily basis am forced to spend KES 200 on water which is a maximum of six jerricans of 20ltrs. I spent my cash transfer of KES 750 to buy six packets of 2kg maize flour and used KES 70 to buy vegetables atleast for that particular day only.I also used KES 200 to buy water and the rest KES 150 bought a hen as a start of my future investment."

"It was around 4 pm, I was outside my house relaxing after coming to fetch water for my family. I received continuous message alerts on my phone. After checking, I realized that it was the transfer that I was promised by GiveDirectly during the enrollment stages. I was with my husband at home he had just arrived from his job at the iron quarry. We were very happy for receiving our transfer that would transform our living standards for the better."

"We spent KES 25000 of our recent transfer on building a kitchen house. We decided to build it because we only had one house that we use to sleep in it and also cook in. We have been meaning to build the kitchen but due to lack of money, we have not been able to do so. My husband and I do not have stable sources of income and hence we usually do casual jobs to earn a living. The money that we get paid is little, and it is only enough to buy food. We also spent another KES 10000 on buying two sheep. We bought the sheep because they usually reproduce and multiply in number very fast. They will thus be of great help to us in the future since we can sell some whenever we face an emergency that requires us to have money. Other than that, we also bought a bed at KES 3000, and with the remaining transfer amount, we used it on buying maize for our consumption and some water containers."

"I remember vividly it was around 7:16 am. I had gone to collect water from the river. When I came back and checked my phone I could not believe my eyes, it was a message confirming that I have received money from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy and immediately informed my spouse who was at home. We all celebrated with lots of joy. I have never received such an amount of money before. I withdrew the money the following day. We had enough time to plan on how to spend the money."

"It was early in the morning while I was in my way home from fetching some water, when I received a call from my mother telling me to check on my phone. Upon checking I saw a messaged from GiveDirectly stating that I had received KES 55000.00. I was engulfed with happiness and prayed a thankfully inside me for receiving the promised transfer."