"Lack of financial stability is the main source of the challenges that my family is going through. My husband owns a barber shop at Kapkwen market while I have been employed to work in a salon. Because of the high cost of living, few customers are seeking our services and this injures our source of livelihoods. Like today I went to work in the morning and I have returned home empty handed because I could not get even a single customer. I have two children who require special diet like milk and many times we are not in a position to provide"

"My daughter, Tecla, has grappled with a mental illness since the year 2004. She cannot be left alone because she has a tendency of leaving the compound unnoticed and this is dangerous for someone like her. I lock her in the house from morning to evening due to the fact she turns violent. Vandalism is her source of happiness and she likes breaking things like thermos, glasses, and other utensils. This forces me to tie her up on her bed to reduce this destruction. This has been my main challenge and I keep wondering how long will this condition would last."

"The changes in climatic conditions have impacted on us so much. The weather patterns changed drastically and it was initially something not serious to us only to realize later that it rendered farming untenable. We are now struggling with school fees amounting to $2000 annually and all this money looks up to my $120 salary monthly. I, therefore have to take loans to put up with these expenses and soon the creditors might deny me for taking more than what I can pay. It is already a burden to me and might take 10 years to finish repayments."

"The challenges we are facing as a family can be traced back to the time when our parents were evicted from where they had settled by claims that the land was acquired illegally. This crippled our parents economically because we were not able to go to school anymore nor live a life that most families get to enjoy by being together and children growing up together as siblings. I then started to do casual jobs from the age of 15 and by the age of 25, I was able to buy this 0.4 acre of land from my savings. I settled with my family here but the challenge has been that I also had to accommodate my younger siblings because they were in the streets and they had nowhere to call home. I am now doing casual jobs in the village to provide for them and I wish I could find them something to do so that they can also start providing for themselves."

"The main challenge that I am currently facing is the inadequate size of land that we have. We only have 0.2 acres of land and the house has taken half of it. The remaining part is too small, we cannot keep livestock or produce any crops for our consumption. This strains the income that my husband gets by working as a guitarist and he earns $10 a week only which is supposed to meet all the household needs. I wish I could have more land to enable me to keep livestock and cultivate some vegetables for our household. This will cut our daily expenditure by half and we shall be able to start saving for our children's education."

"We are facing a major challenge with our housing conditions. We are a family of 4 and our house has a grass-thatched roof and walls made of mud. It has been 2 years since the roof started to leak because the grass is too old and worn out. I work as a casual laborer in the neighborhood and my income is usually $1 a day on average and this goes to food for the household. The leaky roof lets rainwater into the mud wall and makes the mud fall off so often thus exposing us to cold conditions during the night. We are also experiencing a challenge with water for household use. We would have collected rainwater if we had a metallic roof but sadly I haven't been able to construct one."

"Financial insecurity is the main challenge that I am facing. My husband is a teacher and at the same time doing his degree at Mount Kenya University. He borrowed a loan of $5000 to finance his education and as a result of that $180 is deducted from his salary every month. The remaining amount from his salary is $100 which cannot sufficiently cater for school fees for our child, food, and clothing. Every month he sends me $20 which I add to my $50 salary from my teaching job. I take foodstuff from shopkeepers with a promise to pay by every end month and I have gotten to a point I feel like I am a slave."

"I am suffering from curvature of the spine that began 10 years ago and this has affected my walking posture. Because of this, I cannot engage in any activity to generate income making me dependent on other people to run even small errands. I have not sought medication due to lack of money. I went to the hospital last year in December but I came back unattended because I could not raise $100 that was required for an X-ray"

"Food insecurity is a major challenge that we are currently faced with. We are a household of 9 and we have a small piece of land measuring 0.5 acres. This is hardly enough to till and do dairy farming at the same time. As such, we are forced to use the land for keeping our dairy cow as it is not enough to carry out maize farming, we are forced to buy the commodity at the nearby Kapkwen market which is expensive and sometimes unaffordable. It worries us a lot since we are people of little means who live from hand to mouth. Sometimes we do not get the money to buy it and we go to bed hungry. Such a life of destitution!"

"I have shop businesses selling variety of shop items. I started with a capital of $5 on January 2022. It has grown well such that I am now having a capital of $200. The business has had a challenge of debt defaulters in the past one month. I have customers who have been taking items on credit and currently, I have around $100 that I will never recover from the defaulter. That is the challenge I am currently facing."