"I adopted the norm of prioritizing the school fees of my son who is currently in form four. So when I received the transfers, the goal was to first clear his outstanding tuition arrears worth 3,300 KES. I committed 1,500 KES to secure a goat for rearing to reproduce and maintain a source of funds. Our house requires renovations around the door since it is broken and we use stones to hold and reinforce it throughout the night. Therefore, I spent 2,000 KES to acquire pebbles that will be used for the construction of a concrete pillar around the door. The rest of the money went towards purchasing food, paying for transportation of water from the ponds to my home, and buying kerosene for lighting since I cannot afford solar energy expenses."

"We used KES 15000 to buy a young heifer and used another KES 13000 to cement the floor of our house. We then used another KES 14000 to buy a water tank and the remaining amount of KES 8000 was used to buy food, clothes , fertilizers and seeds for planting. The decision to buy a heifer was to make sure that we have an nvestment that will help us in the nar future to pay school fees for our two children and meet other familys expenses. Our home's floor too was mud made and it was getting hard to maintain it each adnd everytime hence the decision to cment it. Our home is not more comfortable and the entire family is happy. As for the tank, we used to travel for far and long distances in search of water and this was consuming a lot of our time. The tank shall bring to an end the endless shortage of water and give us aple time to be able to engage in other family's activities that will improve our livelihood."

"I spent KES 37000 of the recent transfer money on buying a calf. I bought the calf to help me in the future when it calves. I will be able to get milk for our consumption and I can sell some to get income. I also bought two goats at KES 7000 per goat. I bought them so that they can be our source of milk when the cow is dry. With the remaining amount of money, we used some of it on buying food and clothes for ourselves. We also dug a borehole and bought water pipes. We would not have managed to do the above if it was not for the transfers from GiveDirectly. We usually depend on farming to earn a living where we usually grow crops such as tomatoes and onions and sell them. We also usually supply some of the milk to a milk cooling plant and we get paid at the end of the month. The money that we get from the sales is what we use in paying school fees for two of our children and buying food. We are hence so much thankful to GiveDirectly for their support because we now have food and milk for consumption."

"My new goal is to buy a water tank and more chairs. I would like to buy the tank because in our place we at times experience a prolonged dry season and the rivers are very far. I do not have a donkey to help me carry the water from the river and hence I have to be the one doing the work. With the water tank, I will be able to collect rainwater that I can use even during the dry season. I would also like to buy the chairs because the ones that we have are not enough. Whenever guests come visiting, I have to borrow some chairs from the neighbor. The chairs will thus enable us to have somewhere that we can comfortably sit with the guests."

"I am a professional soup maker for the past five years. This skill I developed four years earlier while working as a casual hotel laborer before starting my current hotel. This was a result of trying out many jobs and businesses and failing. Examples are water vending which affected my health. Secondly is maize vending which was affected by the outbreak of the maize disease and the last fruit vending which was seasonal. This made me try out the hotel business and it's doing pretty well. This is because on open-air market days I make a profit of KES 4000 but on regular days I make a profit of KES 1000. This has helped in school payments and feeding my family. Recently, when I received my transfers KES 28 000 on building a 27 Iron roofed two-roomed house. Of this KES 18,000 was used on 27 Ironsheets, KES 2,800 on timber frames, KES 3,000 on eucalyptus trees, and KES 4,500 on labor costs. This is because I had only one tiny grass-thatched house which was built three years ago Furthermore, I spent KES 3,000 on six plastic chairs. This is because the ones I had were locally made benches and armchairs. This will help in hosting visitors easily without borrowing like before. In addition, I spent KES 2000 on a bag of maize. This will sustain my family before I get the next transfer. Lastly, I spent KES 2000 topping up my yearly hotel rent because we normally pay KES 18,000 a year at the rate of KES 1,500 each month."

"I received the earliest transfer during the Christmas season. Therefore, I mostly spent on the celebrations by acquiring new clothes worth 1,500 KES for my children and bought celebratory food stuffs such as wheat flour and cooking oil for 1,500 KES. I used cash from the other transfers to purchase three bags of cement for 1,950 KES to construct foundation pillars around the walls of my house to protect it from crumbling during rains. Additionally, I paid medical expenses worth 2,000 KES for my grandchild who had been admitted for three days due to malaria. I also procured food using 1,450 KES and paid a motorcyclist 200 KES to deliver water from the pond to my home since. I used the rest of the money, 400 KES, to acquire a chicken to rear and increase income streams."

"Upon receiving and withdrawing the second transfer, I first took KES 14000.00 and completed the roofing of my house which remained incomplete after the first transfer. I also bought two cows for KES 24000.00, unfortunately, these cows died due to lack of pasture and water since our area was faced with a drought. Since the drought prolonged, I saw it prudent to save the remaining amount for the family upkeep."

"I do not know how to read and in most cases, I either ignore text messages or let my children read them for me. On this day, early in the morning on my home from fetching water, I received a text message. Coincidentally, my daughter had just come from school because she was unwell. I, therefore, handed the phone to her so that she could check the message because most of my neighbors had received their transfers the previous evening except me, so I was cautious of every message that I received. She told me while smiling that I had received money from Give Directly. It was such a happy moment for us, and we thanked God for the blessing."

"One of the evenings when I was out fetching water for my household use I got a text message confirming that I had received 55000 KES from Give Directly. This was a miracle. I never expected that Give Directly would fulfill their promise. I was so excited but I could not show anyone for security reasons. Once I filled my water container I went straight home and informed my family members and received the news positively, and we all celebrated."

"Upon receipt of my second transfer, my priority was a heifer. I, therefore, spent KES 20,000 on a heifer since it will soon reproduce and be a source of milk and income for my family. Secondly, I spent KES 10,000 on repayment of a loan that had accumulated for three months due to the impact of Covid 19 on my hotel business. And my creditor was always on my case and I was stressed but thanks to GiveDirectly because they came in to help on time. Thirdly, I started my hotel business about two years ago and the income of KES 200 a day was used for household consumption. But since I received GiveDirectly transfers my business is booming because I used KES 3000 in addition to stock. And in a day I make profits of KES 380 to 400 per day profit. Initially, I used to buy hotel stock on credit and I was very careful with this because I was accountable each day. Furthermore, I spent KES 1,500 on a 210 liters water container because initially, I had only a 50 liters water container. I also bought a cupboard at KES 7,500 to help in the storage of utensils as I didn't have one. Lastly, KES 3,000 was used on nine sofa set cushions. I also spent KES 3,500 on a bag of maize and other household items. This will sustain my family for a longer time hence reducing household expenditures."