"I used to work as a tailor in a certain company in town but when Covid 19 emerged, unfortunately I lost my job. By that time I was on the process of constructing a big house for my family of 11 members because the one we are current in is too small. I could not be able to raise funds again and complete it at the required time.My ambition was to finish it, receiving this transfers means fulfilling the desire. I am planning to spend KES 50,000 on the construction so that my family can stay comfortable and enjoy life because they will not be seeking accommodation from neighbours. Other than that, I intend to invest the remaining amount on paying school fees for my children for them to be able to study and pass exams so that they have a bright future."

"My life has improved very much since receiving money from Givedirectly, i managed to build a house and i have enough food for the whole family up until next harvesting season, we are having more meals the way we desire unlike in the past before receiving money from Givedirectly."

"Changing times changes everything. I have a large family which is made up of men. They have married and so as per our culture, we have subdivided our land amongst them leaving us with little land for farming. The inability to do large scale farming like before has led to us getting little income that is not sufficient for our home use. This has been the biggest hardship that I have faced in life."

"My husband operates a motorcycle taxi in Kericho and uses the money that he gets from that job to feed our 5 children and I and also uses some amount from the job to pay their school fees. Issues with finances has been my biggest challenge and I resorted to selling milk in order to support him."

"My biggest hardship in life is that, I have been struggling to live and eat properly since I lost my husband years ago."

"I have a family of eight children who depend on me. They need to eat, attend school and have shelter. I live in a one bedroom house that is unfinished. The roof leaks when it rains. This house is not enough to accommodate all my eight children. This forces them to borrow shelter from neighbours which is risky especial moving at night. I depend on charcoal burning business which earns me less than 2000 KES a month. This business is not reliable because there are no more trees in the village for charcoal production. Receiving this money therefore means finishing my house and add one more room for my children. I will then use the remaining amount of money to pay school fees for my family."

"Financial instability has been the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life.This has forced me to stay in a small grass hatched for long because I don't have money to construct a decent house."

"I am a widow with a grandchild who depends on me for her basic education. Due to my age, I am not able to engage in any economic activities that can earn me an income to meet her basic needs. I depend on casual jobs like weeding and digging other people's land to get money for food. This job earns me less than 200 KES a day. Unfortunately, due to the persistent drought facing our village, these jobs are no longer available. This forces me to depend on neighbours to feed me. I also live in a small leaking house that makes it difficult to sleep especially during rain seasons.Upon receiving this money, I will be able to build a better house that will help me sleep comfortably. I will then use the remaining amount to pay school fees for my grandchild. Receiving this money therefore means building a better house and educating my grand child."

"I lost my parents when I was eight years old and I was taken care of by my grandmother. I had to leave school in class five because my grandmother could not afford to pay my fees and do menial jobs to support her. The biggest hardship I have faced since then is financial constraints because the little education that I got does not make me to compete with the rest who got better education."

"The biggest hardship I have faced in my life is the sickness. I was sick and hospitalised for almost two months in 2020. The disease has affected my ability to work as hard as I was before diseases. Currently I have not been able to work in my garden and I much depends on my wife for all works. My wife is old, and with her age she can not manage to work on a 4 acres piece of land alone. This has affected our yearly production ."