"Receiving this money means good housing and food security for me. I have been sleeping in my son's house for a year. This is after my house fell down due to heavy rains. From that time, my son has been forced to depend on his friends for sleeping places. This kind of life lowers my dignity. I feel sad seeing my son struggle while I use his house. I am intending to resolve the whole problem by building myself a new house. I already bought tree poles but due to lack of enough money, I am yet to construct the house. I will use the money I will be receiving to buy iron sheets, timber and pay for the construction fees. Once the house is ready, I will shift to my new house and leave my son's house to him. Atleast my son will settle and have a face in the community. I will then be saving the money to buy land. The land I currently own is approximately a quarter of an acre. This piece of land is not enough for us in terms of agricultural production. In a good season, the land only produces 90 KGS of maize. With a family of 3 children and 3 grand children who still depend on me, this amount of maize does not last us for even 3 month. I am planning to buy 2 acres of land. The two acres of land will increase the amount of maize I will be getting. Approximately, I will be getting atleast 5 bags of 90kgs per planting season. This amount of maize will be able to sustain us for almost a year. This will have reduced the challenges we face due to lack of food. Sometimes we skip meals. On some days, my children go to school hungry."

"It was about 9 am and I was on the farm looking after my goats when I heard a message notification. On checking my phone, I saw the message informing me that I had received the cash transfer from GiveDirecly. I was extremely happy and felt blessed."

"Losing my job and resettling in my husbands rural home has been the hardest part of my life. I have to ask my husband to send me any money for my basic needs. He is working in the city and sometimes, he cannot afford to provide for us. Without an income, I am finding it hard to take care of my children well."

"The biggest hardship is financial constraint. I have a huge family of 5, among them are two orphans and my husband's mother in her old age. I am a caregiver yet I only rely on some few chicken for income. With about KES 50 per day from selling eggs, I am struggling to provide food for the household as well as school fees for the kids."

"From the time my husband left, the house has never gone under any maintenance like we used to. Am now beginning to get worried that it may fell on us whilst sleeping or even the roof be blown off. The children I have try their best but the only money we find is just for food and nothing else."

"Hunger is the biggest hardship i have faced in my life some time back when maize in my farm didnt do well i was relying on food aid program which was not enough and i had to beg in other houses for my children to eat."

"Receiving this money means my dream of owning a dairy cow will come true. I am a single mother of three and also have two other nephews to take care of.Feeding , educating and clothing these kids is a challenge because the little I earn from the sale of fast food in the market is spent on food .My incomes from this job is KES 200 per day and the whole of it is spent on milk and flour . With this money I shall buy a cow worth KES 40000 to help me in food security and income generation from the sale of surplus milk."

"I have a number of things that I have been struggling with due to lack of finances. The first one is school fees for my children. I pay close to KES 3,000 shillings per term and the amount will increase as they proceed to higher classes. This money from GiveDirectly will go a long way in helping me educate my children. I also had a grocery business which collapsed due to lack of money. I plan to set aside KES 3,000 to restart the business and expand it more with the subsequent transfers."

"I was born with physical challenges. There is a lot that I cannot do. I cannot communicate well and I also cannot do physical jobs. With the support of my parents, I would like to invest in a long term business that can sustain me in years to come. What I have in mind is building a tailor shop in our land which is just beside the road. This will cost me around KES 15,000 which I will have saved from the first 5 transfers. I will start by selling school uniform materials then buying a sewing machine from the proceeds. My desire in the future is having a big shop which I will be running just as a manager."

"We are not having a good place to sleep, my daughter is pregnant and she suffering a lot due to our living condition."