"When I received my transfer, I spent KES 20000 to repay a loan that I had taken when my son had been sent back home from school. In addition, I purchased a water tank worth KES 15000. My spouse has been having leg problems and due to this, we usually depend on our grandchildren to help us in fetching water for domestic use. This has always inconvenienced us as we sometimes do not have water to use and my spouse would be forced to go to the river despite her health condition. I am now glad that this will no longer be the case as we will be using this tank to harvest rain water for use and it will save us from many struggles. I spent KES 12000 to pay school fee for my son who was joining a tertiary institution and my grandson who had been sent back home as his father did not have any money to use in paying for his fees and used the remaining KES 7000 to purchase food and other household necessities for my family."

"Waking up in the morning healthy and strong brings joy to me. I spend the morning hours doing house chores like cleaning utensils. I then go and fetch water and firewood. At the end of the morning hours my day is usually well planned and my house and compound clean."

"I am a business man dealing with shop items. I sell this item to small kiosk within the village in whole sale. So when I get this money I would like to open my own shop selling items in wholesale and retail. This will increase my source of income. The first transfer will go to opening that shop because i need like KES 55000 to start. The second transfer i will use to buy a water tank costing KES 20000. In our area we have water shortage. We depend on river during dry season. The river is really far from my household."

"I stay in a semi-permanent house with three rooms. The soil type (sand soil) found in this area cannot be used to build and repair my house. Getting the right soil (clay soil) to smear while repairing is quite cumbersome. Sometimes, I have to travel as far as 6 km to look for the white clay soil type. This task becomes so hard especially during the rainy season as rainwater destroys the walls of my house and therefore the frequency of repair doubles. The amount of energy and dynamics required to carry out all these daunting tasks sums up my biggest hardship."

"A few months ago, life was tough for my family. Our living conditions were poor and sad. Our house had a leaky roof and so whenever it rained, my wife, two children and I would get rained on. Being a water vendor earning very little money, I could not afford to build another house or replace the roof. The transfer from GD transformed our lives. I was able to build a better house. My family now has decent shelter, and I'm proud of this. I also bought ten goats that I plan on exchanging for oxen later on. That will enable me to work on people's farms and earn money. I'm very grateful to GD."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk daily and this was so costly for me. I was spending KES 60 per day. I depend on small scale farming and the harvest that we get is only for consumption. I had no other source of income. My spouse is a security guard in one of the private security company. The amount of money that he earns is also so small. We usually prioritized the household needs. We could not hardly save any money. When we received the first transfer I felt so happy because I knew I would be able to buy a dairy cow. Currently we no longer buy milk. We have enough for our family. We save the money that we could have used on milk to pay school fees for our children. I have devoted much of my time on my dairy cow. I ensure that I feed and give clean water to drink. I have hope that things gonna be much better than before. GiveDirectly has changed our living standard and given us hope to work much easier."

"My main challenge that I am facing right now is about my house. It is a challenge for me because, for each time the rain falls and I am not home, the water wets my bed and it makes my room cold and it is affecting me. I always have to set a coal pot in my room to warm myself before I go to be because of the coldness of the room."

"" When my children visited me in March, I was very happy. Because when they leave this place due to their engagement with school, it takes 3 to 4 months before they come back. Their one time visit can make me very happy, they brought rice and other provisions for me. They washed all my dirty clothes. The second time I was happy was in June of this year (2021) when the water tower you seeing there was completed. I was happy because we will soon get safe drinking water in this town."

"I spent KES 9500 to purchase a water tank of capacity 1000litres. This is because we have shortage of water in our area and my plan is to use it to harvest enough rain water for my family. Currently, we are forced to walk 6 km every day to get water. I also used KES 37000 to purchase oxen and ox-plough which will help me in cultivating my farm. I will be able to prepare 5 more acres something that will assure me of enough harvest for the family use. Previously, I use to cultivate 1.5 acres using my hands, I could harvest 2 sacks of maize which was enough to feed the family of 5 members for 3 to 4 months. The rest of the year, I was struggling to provide food for the family by doing casual activities. I also purchased 15 iron sheets with the remaining amount, I am planning to put up new roof because my house is leaking."

"I can still vividly remember, it was exactly 10 AM when I was at my farm watering vegetables then I heard a message tone from my phone. I was so nervous and even decided to check its content. I didn't belie what I saw, it was an Mpesa message from GiveDirectly. I had finally received my cash transfers which I had anxiously been waiting for. I was over-excited and all I could do was a laugh on top of my voice. I had to return home and share the news with the rest of my family members (my spouse and children)."