"I developed chest problems early last year mainly caused by the exhaustive charcoal burning exercise. I thought it was a minor ailment but to my surprise it led to my admission in hospital for more than two months. At this time, my family was in a bad financial state and the only thing that could help us was selling the only cow which we had. I recovered and once I regained good health, I embarked back to work with the aim of buying another cow. With determination, I was happy when I finally purchased a calf last month from a neighbour."

"We have been leasing land to cultivate maize for domestic use which is expensive. Leasing an acre of land goes for KES 6,000 a year yet we struggle to raise that amount through casual labor. We own 0.2 acres of land and on the same piece of land, there is a house and we graze our dairy cow. We have no land to grow our crops. Our ambition has been to increase the size of land by at least 0.5 acres. We intend to purchase 0.5 acres using the entire transfer at KES 15,000 per 0.1 acres of land. This will be a stepping stone to leading a fulfilled life and I am glad that we will soon achieve this through the transfer."

"Through my small business of selling motorcycle spare parts, I managed to save and bought 3 cows in January. I was very proud of myself. I was very happy because it was a dream realized."

"I live next to a milk cooling plant and I have desired to venture into dairy farming so that I can capitalize on the impressive milk prices that this plant offer to farmers. They buy milk at KES 60 which is way above what milk vendors are offering. At the moment I do crop farming which is not doing well because of unfavorable weather conditions such as long periods of drought. In January this year, I planted maize and beans in my 0.5-acre piece of land only for it to wither 3months later. These losses have hindered me from achieving my dream of owning a dairy cow. I am happy that I can see light at the end of the tunnel because I have been enrolled and there is hope that my dream will soon come true. I intend to use KES 35,000 from my transfer to buy a Friesian breed that will produce 7liters of milk daily. Receiving this money will be a new beginning for my family as I will not have to over-rely on crop farming alone."

"My family consist of two children who are currently waiting to join secondary school. I have been selling charcoal to raise their fees in primary school but now the burden of taking them to secondary school is overwhelming. There are no more trees for burning charcoal. This has forced them to engage in casual jobs in the village to save some money to help them join secondary school. My spouse and I are old and cannot engage in any other economic activity. My biggest challenge therefore is lack of a stable source of income. I am planning to solve this by using KES 20000 to pay their first term fees. I will then use KES 30000 to buy two dairy cows and sell milk to raise their fees for the subsequent academic years."

"I was still in bed when I heard a message notification tone from my phone. It was around 7 Am. When I checked it out I could not believe my eyes it was a message confirming that GiveDirectly has sent me a sum of KES55,000 I felt so happy because that was the first time to receive such a higher amount. I woke up immediately and inform my family members and everyone was so happy. I knew I would be able to buy a cow. This was my priority because buying milk daily was so costly. I withdrew the money the following and planned with my family."

"It was around 7 Am I was milking my cows when I heard a message notification tone from my phone. I did not check it out immediately because I was still busy. When I settled down I decided to find out who might have texted me that very early in the morning. I could not believe my eyes it was a message confirming that I have received a sum of KES 55,000 from GiveDirectly. I felt so happy and celebrated with my family. That was the highest amount of money I have ever received. I went to withdraw the money the same day and plan with my family how to spend it. The topmost priority was building a better house."

"For too long, my life has not been so good because most of the time I have been treated as a failure and someone who will never achieve anything tangible in life. This was occasioned by my physical disability where it started with my parents despising me and perceiving as a curse in the family because I was born without proper limbs. I have however went against all the odds and bought a land and raised a family through hard work and perseverance. When I failed to go to school it actually made me think on other means of survival which I ended up being a full-time herder and I have since bred 10 cows which have really helped me to progress well in life. These transfers now will earn me more dignity because I plan to use the whole of it to add more cows to my herd which means that am one of the wealthy people in the community."

"I am a trained teacher by profession, though I am still unemployed at the moment. I am married and blessed with two children. Upon the receipt of my second transfer, I opted to buy a dairy cow to cut down on the cost of buying milk daily. It was becoming expensive due to financial constraints. Therefore I bought a dairy cow worth KES 51,000 which I was unable to purchase due to unreliable income. Lastly, I bought a bag of maize with the remaining amount. I am so happy to have received the support that lifted my living standards generously."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I was able to boost my business. And with the profit that I made, I was able to purchase a dairy cow. I am grateful for the support that empowered me toward financial freedom."