"I spent my transfer to invest in my children's educational needs. Currently, I have 4 children who are schooling, 2 in the university taking education courses with one at postgraduate level. The others are in college and secondary school respectively. Providing for their education has been a great struggle for me. I was forced to take huge loans to cater to their studies. The transfer has been of great help to me. I spent KES 40,000 to clear their school fee arrears, previously they had huge fee balances that it was hard to complete, I was just giving false promises for them to stay in school. In addition, I bought a bigger solar panel on hire purchase by paying a deposit of KES 3000, this was for lighting my house. Formerly, I had small solar which provide a dim light for my kids to study. At the moment, they are doing their homework well without struggling due to poor light quality. I also bought a water tank KES 5000 to store enough water for my family of 9 members. The remaining amount I spent on daily needs like food and water."

"My husband and I were given this house we are staying in by my father-in-law. When it rains, water gets into my room and we lack a lot of basic things like beddings. Receiving this money means spending 40,000 KES to repair it and buying the beddings. I am also an expectant mother and I will use some of the money to help me after my delivery."

"Water.The dam we are depending on for water is drying up at a very alarming rate because of the extreme temperatures and this means we will be fetching water far away from Ndarako. I do make charcoal and currently we do not have the appropriate trees for making charcoal.We are now digging out stumps to make charcoal."

"Fetching water from the stream can be tiresome, Upon receiving my transfer, I purchased a water tank to relieve my wife from going to the stream several trips daily, I was unable to purchase one before due to so many responsibilities especially paying the school fees for my children, thus I saw this as the perfect opportunity where I used KES 5000, I then used KES 10,000 in constructing a poultry house, in addition to that I paid back a debt of KES 15,000, and lastly, I used the remaining amount on medication, and in buying furniture, I am grateful for the support that changed my life positively."

"I used my money to buy a matres and blanket so that i can sleep on a descent place. I also bought three bags of maize for food. I did not have enough cooking utensils and plates i also bought water dishes and other home utensils."

"Before December we used to cover very long distances to fetch water but thankfully towards the end of it, the rains started coming. This brought joy and happiness to my life because we no longer had to travel far for water up to date."

"Just after the enrollment by GiveDirectly in the village, a lot has changed not only in the lives of those who had been in extreme poverty but also in the middle-level households that have been struggling to meet their secondary need. In my opinion, GiveDirectly was fair enough to give everyone equal chance that has seen my family enjoy clean rainwater after I bought a tank, watch every program aired on the newly acquired Television, and also good lighting system that has been giving my children ample reading environment. I loved everything that has happened so far and am grateful to GiveDirectly hoping that they will keep doing the great work in other villages."

"I bought a water tank at a cost of KES 20000 for harvesting rainwater. We usually walk for more than half an hour in search of water. Fetching enough water for daily household use is not a walk in the park. It not only consumes a lot of time but energy too. The water tank has been of great relief since I bought it. It holds 3000 liters which we can use for a whole month. KES 16000 I paid in school for my son's college fees. It has been a struggle to raise the fee since we have been depending on subsistence farming and only sell the excess produce once in a while. The rest of the money I spent on iron sheets that I used to complete my house which was halfway. The previous house was too small to fit my large family of seven, but we still squeezed ourselves in it because we had no choice."

"I spent part of my second transfer on paying school fees at a total of KES 1000 for my two children. That was the required money for their exam fees and I was stuck not knowing where I would get the cash. I later bought some iron sheets, cement, gravel, and bricks at a total of KES 10000 to build a pit latrine. Initially, we used to go to the bush to relieve ourselves. This lead to an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera especially during the rainy seasons. Later on, I bought three goats at KES 9000 which now serve as the assets that I can readily rely on. Finally, with the amount of money that had remained, I bought foodstuffs for my family and other household items."

"Lack of food. The prolonged drought made farming difficult as maize could not survive in this hot weather and maize is our staple food when we do not harvest then it means to hunger. Unclean water. We depend on water from the dams which is not clean and the dam is very far. I take 2 hours to bring 20 litres of water."