"For the past 25 years that I have been living in my current village, clean drinking water has been the major problem we experience on a daily basis. Therefore, when I learned that I would benefit from GiveDirectly transfers, I first planned to buy a 10,000 littres water tank. My intention was to invest in means and ways through which I can harvest rain water for my household's consumption. Immediately I accomplished this goal, I came up with a new plan of building a new iron roofed house since the previous one was, but a grass thatched house. As a result, I could not harvest rain water while living in the former house. Though the present house is not fully complete, I am glad that nowadays I not only live in a better and more comfortable house, but I am also able to harvest rain water."

"Low income has crippled most of our family projects over the time to an extent that we sometimes have to go without food or other family needs as we are not able to afford it. It would be my greatest joy if I could start a business so that I eek out my husband's income from the so many casual jobs he has in the village. He is only able to earn between 200 KEas to 500 KES per day whenever he works. But this is not enough to get us specifically food and water while also paying other bills like school fees for my three children who are in primary school paying fees of 1500 KES every term."

"The biggest difference in my daily life now is that I am always happy unlike before I had nothing to hold on.Water was a problem and with my old age it was quite a struggle but now with a water tank this has reduced the pressures towards it.I can now dedicate my time to some other activities rather going to the river which is miles away."

"My first goal is to renovate my house so that it can be decent. The roof and walls are old and weak. I am planning to spend the first transfer to buy materials and begin with putting strong pillars and plastering so as to make it strong and attractive. A portion of the second transfer will be for beddings as well as paying school fees for my grandson who is in secondary school. The remaining amount will help me to cater for other basic needs such as food and water. I will be exited once I see my long awaited dream become true. This is because I have constantly thought that my house will fall when the long rains starts"

"The goal when I receive the transfers is to start a shop and a grocery business so that I have an income-generating activity. It will enable me to earn a profit of KES 300 a day which is sufficient for a family of 5 members s. In a day I require KES 200 for food and water. Besides, I will use a portion of the transfers to buy 4 indigenous goats which do well in our area due to hot weather conditions. As they multiply, I will sell at a profit and use the proceeds to pay for schools fees and stationary. Once I realized this objective, I will be fascinated because I will have a regular source of money."

"Life was unbearable until December 2021 when it rained heavily for like three weeks. My palm trees got water that made them produce more wine which up to now I am enjoying the fruits though it's not to the extent being used to."

"Shortage of food and water is the biggest challenge that I am currently facing. This has been made worse by the ongoing drought that we are experiencing in our area. I buy 3 of 20 liters jerricans of water per day at cost of KES 60. This is very costly for me since I have to buy food for my family of 4 members. The only source of income that I depend on is charcoal burning, a job that earns me as little as KES 2000 per month. I have been struggling to put food on the table and sometimes we skip meals or even borrow from relatives something that makes me feel sad."

"My plans involved building a better house for myself. This is because the house I lived in was occupied by me and two of my co-wives. The house itself was built by my late husband but over time it became old and needed renovation. My husband had already passed on and my co-wives and I barely had jobs to sustain our day to day life. Most times we would dread the rainy season because we were afraid we would have to fetch the water leaking inside the house."

"I had 2 cows but due to drought, I lost one. This angered me a lot but luckily, in December 2021, we received some rain and we could get water and pasture for our animals. Due to this, my cow is now doing well and this gives me a feeling of happiness."

"Receiving this money means better education for my children because I would like to use the transfers to connect the house to the national electricity grid and drill a water well in my compound so that we can easily get water for household use. The absence of electricity in my household has been restricting evening studies for my children while in the neighborhood the other children study up until 9 p.m. I could see from their latest scores in tests and assignments that they are not performing well and lack of extended studies in the evening has been a contributing factor. This worries me but I am glad also that once I drill a water well for them they'll have ample time in the afternoon after school to relax because at the moment they usually have to walk to a nearby spring a distance of 2 kilometers to fetch water for their use."