"I have been staying in this old house made out of grass, for over 30 years now. I live here with my husband, my sister in law who is very old, and also my grandchild. I can say that it's a very difficult life, because the house doesn't have doors or windows and there's no air circulation, so it posses a threat of insecurity and because of lack of oxygen we are a risk of COVID-19 infections. Living with my in-law is also not cormfotable and deprives me my privacy, so most of the time has husband prefers to sleep outside which is not okay. My dream is to use the first transfer of 55000 KSH to build a double room which will host my sister in law, grandchild and other visitors, this will attract a total cost of 35000 KSH and the remaining balance of 15000 KSH I plan to buy 3 mattresses at 5000 KSH each."

"I spent part of my second transfer on buying a pair of oxen at KES 26000. I am grateful to have them because I feel there will be a relief to be especially in my agricultural activities. For all those years I have been using my own hands when plowing my farm which was relatively tiresome. Also, I cleared fees arrears of 15000 for my children who are both in colleges and primary schools respectively. I later cleared the medical expenses of KES 2000. I have been quite unwell for some time. With the remaining amount of money, I bought sufficient foodstuffs for my family and other household items."

"GiveDirectly did well by enrolling less fortunate households in the community and providing the funds through mobile transfer which was easier to most of the members because they provided phones for everyone to access the new technology of money transfer.In addition, they funds have improved the living standard in our village because most of the members in the support program own new homes and businesses."

"I spent part of my recent transfer of KES 40,000 to build a new house since the previous one was in a pathetic condition, and could collapse any time. My current house has two bedrooms and a spacious sitting. I am glad that the additional bedroom will be sufficient for my younger children hence they will not be squeezed anymore. The rest of the transfers helped me in paying school fees for my 3 children in primary school as well as acquiring food for the rest of my household. As a result of GiveDirectly's transfer, I have been relieved from the financial burden that I was undergoing previously."

"I am one of the people who were evicted from Mau Mau and its unfortunate I never benefited from the government settlement plans.I worked as an Housmaid for more than a year in Nairobi before starting my own business of cooking fried potatoes. My goal was owning my piece of land and building my house which I was able to achieve through my first savings of the year.Recently after building a two roomed house I developed interest to furnish the house and to have a separate kitchen ."

"The biggest challenge is financial constraints. We solely depend on farming and rearing cattle as the main source of income. During dry seasons, it gets hard as we might not harvest much and the cows may not produce much milk-making us struggle to meet our needs. It gets harder to pay school fees because we have four children in different school."

"Receiving this money means improved living standards for me and my family of three. Currently, we purchase foodstuff including milk from the market which is expensive considering we do not have a stable source of income. It can cost up to KES 1400 per month and we must purchase it because of the young children. I, therefore, plan to buy a cow of KES 30,000. For the rest of the amount, I will use it to construct a new kitchen since the one we have is old and it."

"I live in a small grass-thatched house that was built ten years ago. The house roof leaks during rain but due to lack of money I have not renovated it yet. Through GiveDirectly transfers I will erect a new three-bedroom house using sticks and mud with sixty thousand Kenya shillings this will be able to accommodate my family of five. Twenty-five thousand to purchase six goats, and the balance to buy a bicycle to help my family fetch water since the dam is located very far from our home."

"I was working in a company that transport goods to Tanzania for over 10 years. But during that time everyone in this whole compound was depending on me. I could not even save for myself. Because of that, I could not be able to put up a structure for myself as a retirement home.Now many people including my neighbors are wondering why I still sleep in a one room mud walled house despite that I was working. It is for that reason that I want to construct a two room semi-permanent house. I plan to use 50000KES for this project and use the rest of the money to pay school fees for my two children."

"I have a family of eight with six of them being the children. Imagine we are all sleeping in the same one room house. It's very embarrassing and uncomfortable to sleep with your adolescents children and very much against our culture. Getting this money will enable us to put up a three roomed house which approximately will cost us 60000KES. I also have my son who is in class eight and probably by May this year, he will be joining form one. I am going to use the remaining amount to facilitate his secondary education. Even if some of the challenges will not be cleared but the biggest elephant in the house will have gone."