"My ambition is to be able to finish studying. I was studying a course in community health at a nearby college but had to take a break last year because of lack of school fees to finish my exam.I'm now a casual labourer earning $50 per month which is not enough to pay for my school fees. I will use $150 to pay for my exam,$30 to build a better house and use the remaining amount to start farming of maize and beans."

"Receiving this money means a boost to my income. I plan to invest in the education of my husband. He is a driver who drives public service vehicles. This gives us little pay as a family. My plan is therefore to get my husband back to driving school to train as a plant operator. A plant operator earns more than a public service driver because it creates an avenue for more opportunities."

"Financial instability is the biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life. This is because I am a housewife and I majorly depend on my husband who is doing casual labor which is not consistent and his income is very low, which can not support fully the needs of the family. We periodically skip meals and borrow from relatives something that ashames me."

"When I was diagnosed with this heart condition the doctors recommended that I shouldn't burden myself with a lot of work and in this place you must toil hard to get life going. My husband abandoned me and married a second wife and I was depressed about it though I have recovered. So having a weak body and being abandoned by my husband has been the biggest hardship."

"Receiving this money means building my house. I came from a polygamous family. For the past 3 years, we have been sharing the same structure something that has hindered my privacy. This has been my dream but due to financial instability, it has never come to pass. I plan to spend 40,000 shillings to construct a 2 rooms house so that I leave comfortable and retain my privacy. Other than that, I will invest the remaining amount in education so that I clear all the fees balances for my child who is in secondary education. She has been in and out of school due to fee arrears."

"Before receiving the transfers, I had always been ashamed to mingle with some of my peers. This is because I always felt that they were ahead of me in life as most of them were not sleeping in the same room with their children. The transfers enabled me to build a more spacious iron-roofed house for my family something I never thought I would ever accomplish in life. This is because the task of educating my children and meeting my family's needs on time had weighed me down. Also, having some assets that I can easily convert to cash when faced with financial challanges is a source of happiness to me."

"I spent my transfer on different things, I was able to improve my home condition by renovating my house, I bought 10 bags of maize and also some plates, spoons and pots"

"My life is different than how it would have been if I never received the transfers in that I have bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk daily and this was so costly for me. I do small scale farming and the harvest that we get is only for consumption. We rarely get surplus to sell to meet other basic household needs. Buying a dairy cow was nearly to impossible. I had no extra money or saving to buy dairy cows. My main aim was to provide food for the family and pay school fees. When I received the second transfer I found it Worth to invest in dairy farming project. Currently I no longer buy milk because I have enough for my children and I sell the rest to earn an income to pay school fees. I am so happy because my children are no longer sent home to collect the school fees like before. I have devoted much of my time on this project. I hope to improve it and own good breeds in the near future. This will be the main source of income."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that I have build a better and spacious house for my family. I used to live in a small grass thatched house which cannot host all the family comfortably. I depend on small scale farming and casual jobs in the village and sometimes to get this jobs is hard. The amount of money that I get through this is so small and cannot meet all the basic needs of the family including paying school fees. I had no savings to buy the building material. The small grass thatched house was almost falling apart. This was so risky for us. Whenever I had visitors it was so stressful because there were no space to host them. My children could spent night at the neighbor's house. This was risky because they could walk during the night after taking supper. Currently I have started building a better and spacious house. We are moving in in the next few weeks this will be the best thing in our lives. My children will get enough space for doing their assignment without any disturbance. I will do no longer shy off to welcome visitors to my house. GiveDirectly has enabled us to own a better house and change our living standard to be much better than before."

"My biggest hardship is when my first born died. My first born died in 2005 through a car accident and this affected me very much."