"The biggest hardship was when I got into an accident 30 years ago. I was working with an electricity company. I fell off the electricity pole while repairing it. In 2017 I fell again on the road worsening the situation. The affected leg was fixed but I can't walk long distances, I use crutches to support myself. I, therefore, do not do any heavy work. My wife is burdened with providing for us as well as meeting other family needs like clothing. It saddens me when I see my wife working very hard yet I can not do much to help."

"The money will meant having a good house,blanket, bed and kitchen utensils. I gave birth to six children and unfortunately one passed away. My eldest child is doing businesses in Lilongwe were he sales pots. I lost my husband my husband during 2020 campaign period. Currently I am doing a small business, I buy and sell bananas for a living. At times I do bake banana muffins locally known as Zitumbuwa. On average I make K9000 ($8.67) per week. I use the money to buy food. I do owned half acre piece of land. Due to lack of fertilizer I sometimes harvest 3 to 4 bags of maize weighing 50kgs each, but the land is capable of producing 12 to 15 nags of maize if fertilizer application is done accordingly. I use 70kgs of maize per month for my household. Based on that, what I harvest is only enough to takes us for 2 and half months. And then I buy maize that will be used for the next 10months. As I earlier told you that I lost my husband, it means I do most of the things alone. I do pay school fees for my children and I also use part of the money to take care of the house. This left me with no money to save for fertilizer. I have never benefited from Government Fertilizer subsidy program before. I want to build a nice house as the house am living in has dangerous clacks using the cash gift. Then I will reserve some money to buy food, fertilizer and beddings. I am sure I will invest a small amount of money into my banana business. In future I am planning to buy a large piece of land for family."

"Receiving this money means I'll finally own fertile land. My farm is very small and rocky. The place I can farm is very small, I do not harvest much. I plan to purchase a small piece of land elsewhere, where it is a bit fertile so that I can do farming. I have saved up some amount I will top up with this and buy 3 points costing approximately KES 120,000."

"My biggest hardship I have faced so far is poverty. In life there so many needs that one needs to fulfill and alot of those needs requires money. The small needs that required small amount of money, I managed to fulfill them during my daily income but nether has ever meet my criteria of making it capital. With this money gift, I am aiming to fulfill my passion of having a hardware business."

"Receiving this money would mean a better business for me. I am a businessman dealing with second-hand clothes and with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic early last year, the local market where I do business was closed down for several months. I incurred loses and my business was severely affected. At some point I even thought that it would not recover. In January this year, restrictions were lifted and I resumed business. I realized that business was not as usual because everyone had been affected by this pandemic. Until now, I haven't been able to bounce back. I would therefore like to spend this money to change my business to that of buying and selling cattle, it really works because the people in this locality value cattle a lot and it florishes all year round."

"Receiving this money means a better live for me and my family, I have just started construction of a new house and since my husband retired from being a teacher, our income reduced drastically and we were still contemplating on how we can complete the new house, I really thank Givedirectly for coming to my household. I plan to spend KES.80,000 in buying house materials and use the rest in payment of labour. It has been our ambition to build a new house nmbut we could not have managed this since we have had children who were still in school and so we had to prioritize for them first, and we had to stop from doing any development in our home."

"It has been 4 years now since I suffer from an eye problem. This condition has drained me financially since the little money I have been getting from vending charcoal got depleted. Considering this health condition, I am currently unable to work as a charcoal vendor something that has forced me to remain at home, and I depend on my son to provide me with food. Hence, financial instability has ever been the biggest hardship that I have faced in my life."

"Despite having the dressmaking skills, I am still unable to practice it due to a lack of money to buy the sewing machine. This has forced me to engage in selling firewood as well as vending charcoal. These jobs are very tiresome and low-paying usually 500 per week. Hence, the lack of a reliable source of income is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life."

"I have spent the transfer on building a new house at my home in zomba district and has cost me MK200000. I also bought 3 bags of maize at MK8000 each, kitchen utensils at MK8000 and clothes"

"I spent my transfer on 3 matresses at MK65000, MK25000 and MK45000 respectively, 6 bags of maize at MK90000 each, 2 blankets at MK23000 each, paid school fees for my daughter amount to MK10000 and rented a garden at MK40000. I saved part of the transfer."