"I depend on both crop and dairy farming to educate my children. Three are still in primary and one just did his final examinations at the secondary school level. It is my wish to improve my farming practices and utilize my farm throughout the year so that I can generate more income from it. I am planning to start irrigation during the dry season and I am happy that GiveDirectly enabled me to acquire irrigation pipes that I will use to facilitate this. I will be using income from this project to support my children in their education to the level that they wish to attain."

"After utilizing the second transfer as to how I had planned, I developed another goal that I desire to accomplish once I get some money. if I get the money, I aim to fix a water tap at home and become a vegetable grower. The water will aid me in irrigation for better growth of the veggies. Since drought hit our area, I am sure the vegetable business will do well because people need veggies on daily basis."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that the financial support empowered me to accomplish my long-time dream( the availability of fresh water in my compound ). This is for sure the best achievement and a relief for my family and I. The water will be for domestic usage, commercial purposes, and use for irrigation since I live in a semi-arid region. Initially, we used to walk for like 10KM to fetch water which was tiring. Also, my wife is old and has issues with her backbone so there is a huge relief for her. Also, I am happy that soon I will start practicing drip irrigation. I am positive that in a few months to come, I will even scale up to the large scale farming with the help of the availability of the water which has been my prayer."

"My work is to do farming, particularly crop farming. My job has had a challenge because we received rains two years ago. The drought and family caused a separation between my wife and me. This happened two years ago. Since then I have been struggling with life alone. I desire to carry farming to another level despite the drought problem. I will make a water pan on my piece of land to buy flour and use it as wage after people have done work. The water pan will help me to do irrigation and harvest enough food to take me throughout the year and even sell some to the community. I have a 5 acres piece of land and I plan to do irrigation in all the 5 acres. I anticipate harvesting approximately 30 bags of 90kg each."

"Receiving this money means improving my living standard. I have a family of 7 members. We have been using a pit latrine for the past ten years. Last year 2021 in December, it was washed away during the short rains season. Since then, my family has been using forest as their toilet. It is not hygienic at all. I will use KES 50000 to build a modern toilet. I will also use KES 70000 to dig a water pan. The water collected will help me do irrigation and also have enough water for my cows."

"When I completed my education 4 years ago as a teacher, I ventured into farming. I have planted both tomatoes and tissue cultured bananas. Since our area has been dry for most of the days, we have been doing the irrigation by fetching water in a nearby river and doing the irrigation. It is tedious to us as we do it ourselves, especially when fetching water. Receiving this money will make my work easier as I intend to purchase a money maker machine at a cost of KES.60,000. This will also improve the yields on the farm as we plan to expand the farm for bananas. The remaining amount will boost in buying the seedlings and also hire people to assist planting."

"Due to the persistent drought, I took the initiative to dig a well to provide irrigation water. So I spent my earlier transfer, KES 3000, to fund the exercise. Unfortunately, the laborers encountered a hard rock in the process and stopped working since I lacked the necessary resources to break it. This prompted me to look for an alternative source of income and decided to start a kiosk. So I pooled funds and ended up deducting KES 2400 from my recent transfer to acquire the initial stock. I used the rest of the money, KES 600, to enroll my son in kindergarten."

"Mostly its the kindness we have faced in our home and the profits we made from our irrigation farming"

"I have always desired to have a kitchen garden. A place I can plant vegetables for subsistence use. The plan is to buy a water tank and practice irrigation with it. I will tap the rainwater and use it for irrigation. The other agenda is to refurbish my house and extend one of the sides to create more space for us."

"My home is located near a semi-permanent river where a lot of water flows for a quarter of the year. I had aspired to start small-scale irrigation farming. My new goal is to purchase a generator water pump and pipes. I intend to start growing maize, kales, and tomatoes for my household consumption. Moreover, I will sell the extra produce to earn a living to support my kid's education."