"I am in great poverty. I can not provide clothes food and beddings in my home. I do not even have enough cooking utensils"

"The biggest hardship I have faced in my life is to pursue my dream course. I complete my secondary education in year 2019 and failed to progress with my education since my parent could raise school fees anymore. Their main source of income is subsistence farming and this could not sustain school fees for my collage level and my other 2 siblings at secondary level and others in primary level."

"Receiving this money means a better house for my family and this will lead to better living standards. Unlike today, I occupied my kitchen as the residential house and it is very small such that, it can not fully accommodate us. This has forced my children to seek shelter from my daughter-in-law. My plan once I receive this money is to spend a better portion of the transfer ($400) to construct a decent house and $200 for beddings. This will restore the dignity that I have lost for a long and also the confidence of welcoming my visitors whom I have postponed their apportionment. The remaining amount will help me to buy 2 indigenous cows that will help me to produce milk for household use and also for sale to earn income."

"Food insecurity has been the biggest hardship that I have faced in my life. Sometimes I sleep without eating anything. This has made my life miserable given that I even don't know what I will eat whenever I wake up in the morning."

"Receiving this money means a descent and a spacious house for my family. I'm planning to use 500 dollars from my GiveDirectly transfer to construct a two bedroom house for my family of five. We've had some farmland ownership problems within our extended family. Therefore , I'll use 400 dollars to buy one acre of land for tiling. This will bring happiness in my family since we won't be engaging any longer in the family battles over land. The piece of land will also serve as an important asset for my children. Given that our extended family is expanding day by day, they can use the piece of land to settle with their families in the future."

"The moment i recieved the transfer my heart was filled with joy because it was first time for me to get such huge amount of money, that would help me to get all things i have been longing for in the past"

"I bought blankets, iron sheets, solar panel and cement"

"The biggest hardship we have faced as a family is a continued scarcity of food. The little crops we get from our 0.3 acres of land could sustain my family of 7 for a month. Tropical diseases and prolonged periods of droughts have rendered farming less fruitful. As such, I find it economically unwise to lease more farms as before. Hence, we depend solely on profits from my shop business to meet our financial needs. Unfortunately, we do not acquire adequate and quality food items as we could like owing to the little profits we usually attain since I am doing business in a rural setting with relatively few clients."

"Receiving this money means a stable source of income. I am employed as a hairdresser in the nearby town earning a meager wage of Ksh 500 a day. Because I am a single mother of one girl who is in Primary school, raising her single-handedly with that income is hard. My intention, therefore, is to spend my first transfer to open and run my salon in the nearby town. My projection is to increase my income up to approximately Ksh 1500 a day. Fulfilling this dream will mark a stepping stone in my financial freedom."

"Lack of enough finances is my biggest hardship. This has resulted to us being unable to meet our needs comfortably. My children are almost half naked as it takes blood and sweat to purchase new clothes. In most cases I am forced to take goods on credit because I cannot allow my family to stay hungry. The little that my husband's get goes into clearing the debts and the cycle continues."