"I bought 28 iron sheets, woods , nails to repair the house which was in a bad condition, I bought 7 bags of maize to feed my family,"

"I am very happy now and unafraid to spend on items that were at first only but dreams and considered luxury though necessary"

"i used to do piece work in exchange for food i usually had inadequate food at home. sometimes we could only eat once a day because of lack of food. when i received the money i bought enough and nutritious food for my family, and right now we are having enough food as a a family and we are managing to eat three meals a day. i have also stopped doing piece work in peoples farms and i am working in my farm only."

"i used to sleep on a mat, without any blankets. i could only use a small piece of cloth to cover myself. the same scenario was happening to my children. we were having a difficult time to sleep during cold seasons. when i received the money i bought mattresses and beddings and right now we are sleeping comfortably with my family. even as the cold season is approaching i am not worried at all because i know we are safe as a family."

"I used to struggle since we had no good blankets and we were also struggling to buy food but that is now history since we are no longer going to bed with an empty stomach and i am very happy"

"I am now living a happy life since i have also used the funds to buy bags of maize and my life is no longer the same since we are not going to die of hunger since we have now enough food in my family"

"i have bought iron sheets, clothes, blankets and i have saved some of the money since i want to but fertilizer since i do not want my children to die with hunger next year i want to have a bumper harvest"

"It was early in the morning and I was already up and on the farm tilling. As I was going about my work, I heard an SMS alert on my phone. I stopped working and decided to check it. I was so excited to see a Mpesa message saying that I had received the lump sum transfer from GiveDirectly just as promised. I immediately rushed back home and I informed my wife of the good news. She was so happy to hear this too. We celebrated together and thanked God for this. I then took breakfast and prepared myself to go and withdraw it."

"The money from GiveDirectly has helped me a lot. I have been able to complete building a house that I had left pending. The house that I have been building is the sleeping house for my boys and I had not placed doors and windows in the house. So when the money from GiveDirectly came, I bought two doors, two windows, and door locks that were placed in the house. It is planting season in our area and I did not have money to buy the farm inputs. The money hence helped in that I bought two bags of maize seeds and two bags of fertilizer. I have hence been able to plant just like the rest of the people in my neighborhood. The transfer has also enabled me to buy a maize shelling machine. I usually do the business of shelling maize and I have been experiencing some challenges because I usually hire someone else’s machine. I also bought two jembes, a d-light solar lamp, chair cushions, and with the rest of the money, I bought some clothes for ourselves and that for our children. I have always had the desire to do the above things especially to complete building the sleeping house for my boys and to buy the shelling machine but due to financial constraints, I have not been able to. I usually move around shelling other people’s maize but this has not been easy at all especially during this Covid-19 period. There have been travel restrictions to curb Covid hence there has been no business and hence no money. Thank you GiveDirectly for enabling this to be possible."

"The biggest hardship I have ever faced is denial by my own biological parents. They kicked me out of our family and they told me to start living by myself. I felt denied at the time of my need. I had to go the Kericho to be hired as casual labourer in the year 2019. That time I used to starve for some days which was the biggest blow in my entire life."