"A prolonged period of drought has been the biggest hardship we have faced in life. Lack of sufficient rainfall in our region has cause mental turmoil. Over the last 8 years, we have experienced low rainfall in our region and this has reduced crop production. We have an acre of land which we have grown maize for domestic consumption. Initially, we used to harvest approximately 8 bags of maize unlike now where we hardly harvest 2 bags. These two bags are unsustainable for one year and thus forcing us to opt for casual labor as an alternative. Give Directly's entry in our village is a sigh of relief to us."

"Financial constraints have been the biggest hardship we faced in life. My husband is a police officer and he is currently servicing the loan which he took some years back to buy land. What he earns as a salary has not been enough to cater to the entire family. Owing to this, we have debts which we have been borrowing from the village members to meet the recurrent expenses of the household. We, therefore, intend to buy a dairy cow and use the produce from milk to settle some debts and meet other School expenses."

"The biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life are the several divorce cases that I have encountered in my life. I am the only child in my family and my father vowed that I will not leave my home because my mother will have no one around. This has in the long run affected my social life since every man that attempts to marry me changes his mind after impregnating me. I have suffered 5 divorce cases in my life. All this contributed to me having eight children who do not have a common father and all depend on me for their survival. Taking care of them without a stable income has really made life unbearable for me. However, I have nothing to do but to struggle making ends meet."

"Unemployment is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life. Being a widow with a family to take care of is a challenge since I have no stable income generating activities that I can engage in. My body is becoming weak as I get old and even the charcoal business that I depend on is becoming hard to do it continuously. However, I have no choice but just to do it because if I do not do it, then I will starve with my family. I earn less than $70 a week which is not enough to meet most of my basic needs. This makes life more difficult for me and my family."

"Receiving this money means starting a business. This is because, currently I have no job and I depend on my husband who works as a motorist and earns $3 a day. This money is not enough to meet our basic needs like food on a daily basis. I have a family of one child and this child needs to go to school. However, this is very difficult due to financial instability. I intend to use the first cash transfer to smart a small hotel in the village which will cost me approximately $ 300. This will help me earn a living on a daily basis to meet most of the basic needs. I will then use the remaining amount of money to buy goats to start livestock farming as an investment for my children in future."

"Lack of sustainable income is the biggest challenge that I have ever faced in my life. Both my husband and I are unskilled people getting a good job to sustain our family of 10 has been a challenge to us. The only source of livelihood is charcoal vending a job that is tiresome and earns us a little amount that can not fully support all the basic needs of the family."

"The biggest hardship that I have even faced in my life is constantly illness in my family. Due to these challenges, I have been spending every coin I get on medication, thus preventing me to cater to other basic needs of the family like constructing a decent house for the family."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have bought a heifer. I do small scale farming at home and the harvest that we get annually is only for consumption. I rarely get surplus to sell. I had a poultry keeping project though the income was so small. The amount of money that I get through this two projects was so small and could not meet all the basic needs of the family including paying school fees for my children. I had sold most of my cows to pay school fees for my children in various schools. It was not easy to purchase another cows. When I received the transfer I felt so happy because I knew I would be able to buy a heifer. I like dairy farming because the rate of return is high. Currently I have a heifer and this is my dream come true. I have hope that when it reproduced in the future I will get enough milk for my family and even sell the surplus at the market to earn an daily income. I am so happy because GiveDirectly has changed my living standard and enabled me own a dairy cow which could have taken quite some time to get it."

"The biggest hardship in my life is lack of a reliable source of income to cater for my family's basic needs. I rely on my husband's kiosk business to sustain my family, a business that is not well rewarding. This has made my life miserable in the village."

"Receiving this money means a descent and a spacious house for my family and any visitor who might come to check on us. The house I live in is in bad condition and dangerous for any person to live. Sometimes I feel ashamed whenever I get a visitor because of the condition of my house. The walls have some cracks and the house is nolonger stable and can collapse anytime. I am planning to use 500 dollars from the GiveDirectly transfers to construct a two bedroom house for my family. This will make me a happy woman and earn the reputation I have always desired in my village. I will use the balance to cater for my grandchildren's school fees. Lack of school fees has made them miss classes at school and this will in the end affect their academic performance."