"Since the beginning of COVID-19 up to date, I have not recovered financially. I am a security guard at a water outlet but when the pandemic hit the country in 2020 I went for almost 4 months without a salary, which made me strain to make ends meet for my family. The only thing that kept us going was my wife's grocery business but because of the lack of capital, it almost collapsed. The lack of finances to boost my wife's grocery business is my current challenge."

"This news concerning the money that is to be transferred, is a news of total joy and happiness. I am so happy and I know that my purchasing of land is certain. I am grateful to Give Directly family and over joy because this is a wonderful blessings of my time. My suffering of walking in water before entering my home is over."

""The land of Bomet is one of the most dry areasin Kenya due to drought. I have always dreamt of buying water tank to help me stock water for the family during dry seasons. I knew that when I buy the water tank my family would no longer goes without water during dry season. In our village almost every one is keeping livestock. Livestock keeping is the main source of livelihood and income in Siongorie village. I had always dream of even one cow for the family. So the new goals that I had before receiving this transfers was buying a water tank and some cattle.""

"My challenge here is water. Because only one hand pump in this town and by the time wake-up to get water the pump go out of water and the only choice is to go to the creak for water so I can't get safe drinking water."

"Receiving this money means better housing. I live in a grass-thatched house that serves as both the main house and the kitchen. The house is small and uncomfortable to host visits or because of the smoke. I plan to use KES 40000 to build a big, tin roof house that will be the main house and convert the one that I live in as the kitchen. I will be able to harvest rainwater from the house because the scarcity of water in our area is a major challenge."

"I bought some building materials such as timber and poles at KES 25000 which am I planning to use to construct rental houses in the nearby center. We have a piece of land that has been lying fallow for a long period of time. I want to develop it so that I can earn some income from the rental houses. I am a subsistence farmer but the farm produce cannot feed my family for a whole year. This will boost my income to help me meet my family's needs. I also bought a piece of land near my home at KES 15000 where I am planning to drill a borehole. Water is a real challenge in our region because of the prolonged drought we normally experience. Once I will have drilled the well, I will be supplying my community members with the water at a fee which will also be an additional source of income."

"Paddocking my farm is the biggest opportunity that I can get with this money. I will have controlled grazing, leading to having sufficient use of my farm to feed the livestock. It will also reduce the intesity of having to tend to cows all the time, allowing me more time to till for crops. I will spend about KES 20,000 to achieve this. My farm will be more productive.I will also mprove my home with new beddings and furniture, at about KES 20,000.I will also buy a water tank and buy a heifer."

"I am a business lady selling liquid detergent. I package them in a 500ml recycled water bottle. A bottle goes for ksh20 and in a day I normally manage to sell 7bottles. When I received my first transfer, I used ksh500 to pay for my five children's school fees as they had been sent home due to arrears. Ksh200 was for my tithe and the remaining ksh500, I used to invest in my business. After I paid for the children's school fee arrears, the pending arrears were now ksh1500. I was unable to settle it with my second transfer since I used ksh1100 on my hospital bill, ksh1000 on Christmas celebrations, ksh600 for the improvement of my business and lastly, I tithed ksh300. Therefore, I am planning to settle it using my next transfer."

"It was in the evening at around 6pm and I was from fetching water when I found out about the text message confirming that I had received the money from GiveDirectly. I was so happy the moment I received the money because I knew that the problems I had been facing would definitely come to an end, especially the roof of my house that had always been open. This used to give me sleepless nights, mostly when it rains, therefore, I was so happy when I received the transfer."

"My first transfer went into buying goats. I wanted to buy she goats that could breed and increase the herd. I set apart 10,000 shillings which I used to by 5 goats all for different prices which was dependent on quality of the animal.I also bought 5 hens and one cock to add to my animals, the chicken cost me 250 shillings each while the cock cost 1000 shillings. I also bought a bed and a mattress at 10, 000 shillings with each costing 5000 shillings. My children, my wife and I didn't have presentable clothes. I felt it as an important thing to buy clothes for the entire family so they would be able to have good clothes for them to wear. I had taken out a loan worth 32300 shillings in Mombasa to begin a car wash which eventually ran down. I paid 15000 to the lender from the first transfer. The rest of the remaining cash from the first transfer sorted out food for my family. I paid 17300 shillings to my lender from the second transfer so I could clear the loan completely and used 2500 shillings to buy a door for my house. The rest of the money I had left was directed to the purchase of food. We have had a long drought which has made it a difficult task acquiring food. I spent a large chunk of my transfer buying food over the period of time from recieving the transfer till now that I have 5000 still left which sorts water as well as food purchases."