"School fees for my two children and two grandchildren has been a menace. Sometimes they are forced to spend like two weeks at home because of fees arrears. This situation has affected their performance in school and for some of them they have even lost hope in continuing with education. I did not go to school myself but I believe nowadays education is very important for any child to grow independent. Therefore, I feel bad when I see my generation is unable to get quality education like other children."

"The main challenge is food insecurity. We purchase foodstuff including mainly maize flour and milk occasionally. Maize flour costs us KES 3000 per month which is very costly and it strains us a lot. My husband is a casual laborer at a carwash center earning KES 500 a day which goes to food and school needs for our children. This leaves us with almost nothing to save up for the developments."

"It was around 5pm while winding up my farm work. On checking, I confirmed to have received the eagerly awaited KES55000 and I was very grateful."

"Financially I am straining to provide food for my son and my parents since they also do not have a stable source of income. Our employer changed our terms of employment. Currently, he pays me monthly, previously was bimonthly. This makes it hard to afford food some days and one is forced to skip some meals. The amount also is not enough to cater to other emergencies and needs at home."

"I am a housewife and my husband is a teacher. The school delays in paying his salary. This affects our needs as a family (we have two sons). We at times have to skip meals because we do not have the money to buy food. Our children still do not have a bed of their own and we have to share the same bed with them. All this has been hard to achieve due to financial limitations."

"The biggest challenge is financial constraints. I have not been able to raise money for my daughter's education and have been at home for over a week. This is worrying to me that she will not have enough time to study as she was about to seat for the end year exam. I normally do casual jobs such as weeding people's farms to get money however I am paid KES 150 per day, this payment is usually insufficient to meet all my household needs. To back up my daily income I sell one liter of milk at KES 35 per day which am paid weekly. KES 100 of milk sales goes to school and the remaining I purchase food for my family however it is still not sufficient to pay for my daughter's tuition fee."

"The biggest challenge is food insecurity. Sometimes when I feel strong I do casual jobs around the village where I am paid KES 100 and to get these casual jobs is also a challenge since most people prefer young and energetic people. This money I spend on purchasing food for a day with no hope for the next day. On a bad day I am forced to go to bed hungry and this is worrying me since am old and sickly."

"It was around 5pm after attending a merry go round monthly contribution when everyone was smiling after checking their phones. Out of curiosity, I checked mine too and confirmed to have received KES55000 from GiveDirectly. I was very happy knowing that my child school fees would be cleared."

"The biggest challenge is insufficient money. My husband does motorcycle taxis where he is paid KES 300 per day that is on a good day. His earnings are then subdivided among different household needs including paying school fees for our children and purchasing food. We have a small farm where we have planted cabbages but with the little rainfall in our area am scared that it will not yield well as we were expecting to take them to school where my son studies for school fees."

"Every individual deserves comfortable housing. In my community, most of the houses are mud-walled therefore, bringing about the competition on acquiring soil to smear. I am not an exception for this case as I have to purchase 10kg of soil weekly at KES 100 from the neighbouring village. Even though I am a farmer, I have no surplus to earn income and therefore I go the extra mile to sell the eggs to earn income. It's for this course that I have been yearning for a timber walled house but unfortunately, finances could not accommodate. I am glad that my dream will come to pass as I intend to use KES 50000 of these transfers to renovate my 2 roomed house. I will be excited that I will not be making round trips to purchase soil and hence save the money for other family needs."