"On receiving the first transfer, I spent the first KES45000 on the construction of a new house bearing two rooms. We had been living in a small old structure for a long time, and as a young family of two, I saw it good to construct a new one since the family will soon be growing to a bigger one. I needed a semi-permanent one that will still take us for the next 10 years as I will not be planning to put up another one any sooner. With the remaining KES9000, I obtained new bedding and also foodstuff for the household."

"It has been my hope for such a long time to either renovate or construct a new house for my family but the struggle to raise school fees as well as upkeep for my family initially of 8 was really hard. GiveDirectly transfers came at the right time when the family size has reduced as the 4 elder sons had moved to start their own families, the only girl was also married leaving us with only the last born who also dropped out of school a year ago. Even though we had not been paying school fees, we could not raise enough money to put up a good house alongside obtaining livestock. I am grateful that GiveDirectly came in and make the two projects possible as I have completed the new house and added two livestock that I could not have been able to add if I had not received the transfer."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is the construction of my new house. Currently, I am in the final stages of the construction as I am now looking forward to fixing the doors and windows before moving in as every other part is ready. It is a good feeling that I am finally having a more presentable house, a similar status with the other neighbors who had been hosting my visitors on my behalf whenever I have more visiting me."

"I used to live in a small house that was almost collapsing as it was old as the termites had started feeding on the pillars and due to this, I always lived in fear knowing the danger my family was exposed to. Also, it's roof was leaking thus we would have sleepless nights during the rainy season as I had not been able to construct a bigger and more decent house for my family. I work as a hands man at the construction sites and I can get some work to do twice or once a week where I earn KES 500 a day. This is always not enough to buy food for a family of nine members and also pay school fees for my 7 children. With this, building of a house was out of question for me. With the transfer, I was able to build a more spacious iron-roofed house and this has made my life different as we now live comfortably without worrying of any member of my family getting sick after being rained on due to leaking roof."

"Looking back at my life before receiving the transfer, my neighbors can testify that my life has totally changed. This is because I have been able to build a house for my family and bought a heifer. Even though I still buy milk on a daily basis, I am glad and hopeful that this will end soon. Before receiving the transfer, I used to live in a small house that we were using as a kitchen and living room during the day and we would turn it to a bed room at night. Due to this, I was always not comfortable welcoming a guest to my house as I knew that she would have longer nights due to insufficient beddings and most old people does not like the idea of sharing a room with children. Currently, I have the privacy that I really needed and I no longer shy off from welcoming guests to my house."

"I am a masonry though a casual labourer, My income is not reliable because our work is not consistent, My house was in a bad shape, it was very old in that one side had crashed down, hence we were covering it with a plastic bag, this was very embarrassing but we had to bear with it due to financial constraint, The transfer came as a big relief because I was able to build a decent house for my family, I used KES 29200. Am grateful for the support that changed my living standards."

"My life is different than it would have been, in that my living standards have improved because I used my first transfer to build a decent house for my family, I am in a motorcycle taxi business, I earn very little that I could not afford to build myself a house, I bought 8 goats with my second transfer, in addition to that I paid school fees for my 2 children who are in a secondary school, I am so happy and thankful for the project that changed our lives, it's my prayer that this good work should continue to empower other communities just the way we benefited."

"It has been hard to earn money from our grocery's shop which our main source of income as most people haven't been able to earn as they usually do"

"The cost of living has really risen since there have been Covid restrictions making it hard to survive. it has been hard to find piece works in order to earn more and my husband's job hasn't been enough to support the family."

""The biggest hardship is we don't have enough utensils,we don't have a sleeping place(no mattress and beddings)we also suffer from hunger since we don't make much money from our piece jobs,I will definitely use my first transfer to finish this house i live in since it doesn't have windows and doors."Said Hawa Changamire in Njingama village"