"I live in a single room house with a family of seven children. The house is unfinished. It has no roof. I just spread worn out iron sheets which makes it difficult to sleep especially during rain season because it leaks. This house is not enough to accommodate all my children. This forces them to borrow shelter from neighbours. My biggest ambition has been to build a two bedroom house that will accommodate my children and sleep comfortably.This house will cost me 40,000 KES. However, this has been a dream that has never come to pass. This is because, I depend on charcoal burning business that earns me less than 2000 KES which is not enough to meet the basic needs of my family. My goal is to build a better house that will restore dignity to my family."

"The biggest hardship for me is waking up everyday without enough food for me and my family. I rely on piecework and farming to get some money which is a litle and never enough to use for everything that I need"

"I have bought 12 bags of cement which Will be used for plastering the walls of the houses and Also applying on the floor. Nails and wires to be used in the process of house maintanance were Also bought. I did not have enough food in my house, therefore I also bought Bags of maize for food."

"Unemployment is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced. Imagine being raised up knowing that the only thing you can do to put food on the table is subsistence farming and then all over a sudden, drought hits your village. This is the current situation that I am currently facing. This has made me shift from subsistence farming to charcoal burning business. However, this business is illegal, but because it is the only means for survival, I have no choice. Everyone in the villages does this and this has made our land look like a desert where all trees have been cut down. Getting trees is very difficult and now we dig the tree trunk to burn for charcoal burning. Soon all the tree trunks will be gone. My ambition has been to be self employed where I run my own legal business. This will help me get food security and save for my future."

"I primarily depend on subsistence farming for my family's needs. I love farming since with enough resources it can be better than masonry which I currently engage in. Receiving this money means a stable income in our family. I am planning to spend KES 40000 to buy a dairy cow to add to the one I have. I prefer a cow since this will be an added asset to my family. In addition, I will be producing more milk for both household consumption and sales. I am planning to keep the offspring as my financial security or sell them to educate my children."

"I am very happy to receive money from GiveDirectly. I plan to use this money to build a house. I have chosen to build a house because the one that I have is not in good shape. It has a leaking roof and it gives me problems during rainy season. The house is also small that it cannot accommodate my whole family."

"I am very excited to receive this money. I will use this money to make bricks and build a house. I will use the money to build a house because I want my grandchildren to have a place to stay. Since I live in a temporary shack I believe it will be a good idea for me to build a house."

"Building a better house that should stand for more years to come is what receiving this money means to, i will be able to buy burnt brick and ironsheet start a fresh and build a new home."

"I feel like GD is doing very well by providing rural communities with money. I received money from GD and the money has been of great help. Other NGOs when they come in this village, they just select few people and pass me by when initiating their program."

"To be honest Madam i have been having struggles with shelter,i have been living in rented houses half of my life all because i can't afford to build a proper house,when i got enrolled in the GiveDirectly programme I didnt know if i will really receive the money or not i had doubts because i have never seen an organisation giving out so much money like this and to me it was definitely my first time hearing and experiencing it so i didn't really get my hopes high.Luckly i really got the transfers and the first thing that came into my mind was to change my living standard forever by building a good house with ironsheet roof,I'm mentioning this because all my life i have been living in glass fatched houses and i don't know how it feels like to sleep in a house with ironsheet and not to be bothered with heavy rains,so since a house is kinder a big project i have started with buying house building materials so i bought 22 ironsheet and bricks only interms of the house,apparently I'm waiting for builders to start with the foundation,I also used part of the money to buy beddings (Matress and blankets)my body only knows the floor and i wanted to test how it feels like to sleep on a soft matress and i must say life is really good right now,i also bought 2 bags of maize just to add to the maize that i already have to cover us the remaining quoter of the year."