"I had been in deep thought of where I could raise some money for enrolling my little daughter in school. I had the plan to do so although the income I was expecting had been delayed. Therefore, as soon as I received my transfer, I spent KES 500 on paying the school fee for her. I am glad that she is currently doing pretty well in school. However, the rest of the transfer, KES 2,500, was in handy in terms of acquiring my very first ever owned goat. I long to see it reproducing and through it, I shall raise a flock. As a result, I shall be able to sell some to either buy a cow or supplement my household income in the couple of years to come."

"My new goal was to buy a cow because I come from a humble background where we don’t own any livestock. I married my wife without paying a dowry because I had nothing. I have since hoped to own livestock, which will enable me to pay her dowry someday. Getting these funds has enabled me to at least buy a cow, which is the beginning of my plan to have livestock."

"After sorting out my water issue with my first transfer, that is buying a tank and putting up gutters to collect rainwater. My second transfer of KES 37,000 was used to buy a dairy cow, which currently is helpful because I can trade in the extra milk I get after my consumption. I used KES 10,000 to fence my compound to ensure that my cow doesn’t go grazing on my neighbor’s farm and also to tighten security for my home. The remaining amount was spent on food and clothing for my family of seven members."

"The biggest difference in my daily life since I received the transfers is peace of mind because I have cleared the debt that I had been repaying in bits over the past four years. The total debt borrowed to construct my house was KES 20,000 and when GiveDirectly came the remaining KES 10,000 was cleared at once. Secondly, with the transfers, I have two dairy cows which will be a source of milk and income soon. Ever since I was married about 12 years ago I had desired to have my dairy cow but couldn't afford it. Thirdly, I have adequate food with the transfers which can sustain my small family for the next four months. Earlier on, we used to eat from hand to mouth because we used to buy food and household items based on the day's income which ranged from KES 100 to KES 200."

"The biggest difference is that I am now a more happy person than I have ever been. Having paid school fees for my children in school for the whole term will give me peace of mind. I plan to use the second transfer to buy a dairy cow since I currently do not have one."

"I spent KES 30,600 to purchase two local dairy cows. I had desired to start dairy farming but I lacked the financial capital to start it. This is the future investment that will help me, when they reproduce I will be vending milk in the village to support my basic needs like food and save some for any financial emergency that might arise in the future. In addition, I repaired my house by putting up a door since I did not have a door and most of my commodities were not safe. Furthermore, I bought a mattress for KES 8,000, this is because I was using sacks as bedding that were not comfortable enough."

"I was at the grazing field looking after my cows when I received the Mpesa message alert on my phone. I remember it was around 7:30 am. Being uneducated, I had to wait until when I returned home for my helper to confirm the message. I had earlier heard the rumors that some villagers had received aid from GiveDirectly. I was very happy for receiving my transfer since I could not imagine that I will in possession of such a huge amount of money in my life. I had to plan with the rest of my family members before I could withdraw and use spend it."

"We decided to spend our recent transfer on cementing the floor of our house that is still under construction but we had left pending for a while due to a lack of money. We had decided to build another house because the ones that we were living in had grown old. We do not have stable sources of income. We depend on the two cows that we usually rear and sell milk when they calve to earn a living. I also usually grow vegetables and sell them to get some income. The money that we make, most of it usually goes to the purchase of food, household items, and helping with the payment of school fees for our four grandchildren. We are thus grateful to GiveDirectly for making this possible for us with the support that they gave us."

"It was around 7:30 am and I was at home milking the cow. I had left my phone in the house. When I was done milking, I went back in and I found my phone ringing. It was a call from one of my friends. I picked it and we talked. When we were done talking, I saw that I had a new SMS. I opened it and I was so surprised when I read that I had received KES 55000 that GiveDirectly had earlier promised us. I was so excited about seeing this and I thanked God for it since the plans that I had made were now going to be fulfilled."

"The transfer has brought a big difference in our lives as a family. This is because with having bought the cow, we no longer incur the cost of buying milk every day. The daily budget cost has thus been reduced and we have managed to save some of the money for making other developments. Thank you so much GiveDirectly."