"Every moment I am alone, I imagine being surrounded by a huge flock of chickens. It would please my heart to be the renowned village supplier of eggs and chicken. With the GiveDirectly transfers, I can almost see myself flourishing in this business. Constructing a spacious chicken pen will be the priority from the first transfer. I will then commit 2000 KES every month to purchase more chicks, feeds, and medication. I look forward to when the business will be meeting all my financial needs, then I will abandon my current occupation as a palm wine tapper."

"With the expanded business that I am currently running, I had been able to realize quite a larger profit margin compared to the previous months due to the diversified products I am currently trading with. Initially, I was strictly buying and selling chicken but after adding up the capital, I was able to also introduce egg selling into my business. The two work well as I had been collecting eggs from every household with chicken around that in most cases gives me access to the new chicken buying points. This to me has been the biggest difference in my daily life since I received the transfer. I am glad that my family is now assured of the daily bread out of this growing business."

"With my family of 7, it has been a struggle making ends meet as I have never gotten a reliable job to earn me enough income to take good care of the whole household. I was lucky to have taken tailoring classes some years back and recently managed to obtain a sewing machine that had been keeping us going. My husband on the other side has also been working hard on his small business of buying chickens from the village and taking them to the nearby market points where he can sell at a profit. On receiving this transfer, we were glad as we knew that a lot will come out of it. I spent the first KES30000 on holding back the neighbor's cow that we had been rearing on our field as he needed to sell to raise school fees for his daughter. This had kept our family for quite a long time as we have not been buying milk since it produced just enough for our domestic usage. I also managed to pay KES5000 for my son currently in secondary school, obtained enough household foodstuff that will take us for the next one month at KES 4050, household piece of furniture and clothing for my children at KES6000, construction post in preparation to put up a new house at 6000KES, and also spaying pump that has been useful in crops, and livestock protection."

"Currently, I do not own any cows. I purchase milk costing me KES 1260 per month. This is a lot for me as I depend on my few chickens selling them once in a while. With this money, I plan to purchase two dairy cows which will greatly reduce my expenditure. It will cost me approximately KES 60,000. For the rest of the amount I will buy wire mesh to fence my poultry farm as this is my main source of income. This will cost me KES 20,000. I also plan to stock cereals so that I do not spend money on purchases."

"My mother in-law had just passed away when we received the transfer and had left behind a huge hospital bill. As a family, we were planning to sell part of her land and use the money to cover for this and burial expenses. The transfer came in handy as we were able to spend KES 35000 to purchase this piece of land instead of selling it to an outsider. In addition to this, we spent KES 5000 to purchase some clothes that we would wear during the burial and contributed KES 2000 towards the funeral kitty. Using the remaining KES 12000, I bought a wire mesh to use in fencing our compound. I settled on this so that my chicken will no longer be destroying crops in the farm."

"Drought and hunger has been my biggest hardship. Although I am a subsistence farmer, the climate has not been favourable for my produce. We have had prolonged periods of drought with a few onsets of rain and this has impacted negatively on the crops. We have resulted to purchasing food to sustain my family of 2 from the income we get from selling of chicken and goats."

"I spent part of my first transfer on buying building materials and started building a better and spacious house for my family. The construction is still on going. We live in a small grass thatched house which cannot host all the family comfortably. I added stock to my tailoring work. I do run a tailoring business where I earn an income to meet household needs for my family. I bought poultry feeds for my chicken. The rest of the money I spent on food and clothes for my children. I am so grateful for the support because GiveDirectly has changed our living standard."

"Receiving this money means a good source of income to my family of 3 members. Currently, I am a housewife. This I plan to achieve through practising livestock and poultry farming. I intend to spend KES 90,000 to purchase 20 indigenous goats and 2 chicks and I built a shelter. As the goats and chickens multiply, I will sell them at a profit price. The proceeds I will be getting will be enough to sustain my needs such as food and educate my child who is in lower classes. The remaining transfer will go for modern beddings."

"The money will help me to buy clothes and beddings. I lost my husband in 1999, who left me with only one child, a daughter. Ever since he passed away, I have never thought of remarrying because I wanted to give my daughter all the necessary materials that she might need in life. Later my daughter got married and she gave birth to a son. After two years she was found with cancer which claimed her life in 2006. I was left with my grandson whom I have rised single handed and now he is married with children. Before my husband passed away, we had everything that we wanted and he build a house with iron sheets. But things changed as his relatives came and took over all his businesses. In total they took away almost everything costing about K500000.00 ($479). Some of the properties, I sold them as I was seeking medical help for my daughter. I sale everything including my bedings which made me left with only one blanket, 4 dresses and 2 Zitenje. Since I have nothing that generates money now, I most of the times slept on an empty stomach. With my age, I can not work, it's my grandson who helps me everything. Since we are only two in the family, I have been asked to be at the village to look after the family land whilst my grandson lives along lake banks, (he is a fisherman) with his family. Furthermore, I can not stay with my in-law as people thinks I am switch and I kill my great grand children. Therefore, the money will help me to buy clothes, beddings and shoes. I wish to buy food, not maize but something different like rice and chicken as it has been long since I once eat that kind of food."

"Over the past years, my passion for farming has grown. I have always desired to venture into dairy farming for commercial purposes but sadly, because of financial constraints I haven't. Actually, I have none to milk at the moment. When I receive this transfers , I will use KES 30000 to purchase a dairy cow for income generation. Besides, I will use the rest of the transfers to expand my chicken rearing business for the income I earn (KES 2000 monthly and seasonal) from the selling of the vegetables (black nightshade) isn't adequate to support food and clothing for my family of 5."