"Our family is faced with a lot of challenges currently. In 2014, my husband was attacked by thugs which led to his hospitalization for three years. This led to the sale of all livestock and since then we have been struggling. I'm faced with the challenge of a lack of food and school fees for our children. Since I'm the only one they depend on for provisions they sometimes end up going hungry and my children are sent home because of a lack of tuition fees. Additionally, our houses are in a very bad state and we are forced to live this way because of lack of money to construct new structures. The challenges I'm faced with really stress me and I feel ashamed that I have to live this way."

"My husband and I do casual jobs. Collectively we earn approximately $100 per month. This money caters for food only and sometimes the family goes without food. I have a family of 12 members and uses 4kg of maize flour per day. We take two meals only, in the we do not take breakfast. My younger children are growing weak health-wise due to malnourishment. Food shortage is the current challenge I am currently facing."

"I did my KCSE two years ago and my results are still at school due to a lack of school fees. Both my parents are jobless at home. I do casual jobs of making charcoal for sale. I make $24 per month from the charcoal-making job which caters to food only. Lack of job is the challenge I am currently facing."

"Lack of a stable source of income is generally my biggest challenge which has affected my ability to take care of my family of 11. My charcoal work is no longer reliable because trees are scarce which makes it hard to provide all the basic needs. With the charcoal job, I usually make utmost $20 per month, an income that never sustains us. Spending nights on the flow, lack of school fees, and going to bed hungry have always been the case. This means our health status has worsened while my children's education has never been spared too. What a life!"

"My husband and I are both sick and our health statuses do not allow us to perform strenuous activities. In addition, he is blind which has limited him from seeking any job either within or outside the village. This means, in the last 12 years, we have been surviving and seeking help from well-wishers. What a life! Since our area's economic activities are farming and charcoal work, I am hardly involved in these and my hope has remained in my brother-in-law who is a casual laborer in masonry. His support is usually not reliable since he has many responsibilities to cater to and in most cases, we survive on one meal. I, therefore, consider financial crisis as what stands out as the biggest challenge in my life."

"In my household of 5, we depend on my husband who is a casual laborer in the mining sector where he earns $20 per week. Considering this little income which must be divided into settling school fees for my 2 children, buying food, and other basic needs, we rarely save for the future. In addition, his income is usually inconsistent because it depends on the availability of customers at the quarry. Since I am just a housewife, I lack money to supplement his income and this means in some days, we go hungry, a situation that robs away my joy as a mother. Therefore, the financial crisis is what stands out as my biggest challenge at the moment."

"I am a widowed mother of five children. Before my husband passed on, things were a little better for me. This was largely because I received a lot of support from him in running the affairs of our family. Currently, I am left with two children still under my care. The rest have moved in with their spouses and started their families. The two that I am left with are in their secondary level of education. Getting money to pay their school fees has been a toll order for me. This is because I almost entirely depend on small business of selling vegetables at a nearby market to make ends meet. This lack of school fees recently forced one of my daughters to drop out of school. The last born son is yet to join secondary too. This is a huge challenge to me especially when I know that there is no one to run to. I can only hope that things change for the better and I get money to take my two children back to school."

"Food insecurity has been a challenge for us for some time now. The situation has been so biting that we are forced to purchase at the nearby Kapkwen market. We are peasant farmers and people of little means and therefore affording to buy the commodity is a big deal, at times we are forced to ration the food by surviving on just one meal per day. The situation was further aggravated by the recent high cost of living which has made the cost of 1 Kg of maize to rise to $1.8 up from $0.8, every day is hard for us. We live each day as it comes and we worry about what to eat the next day. We hope and against hope and only depend on God."

"There are many challenges that I go through in my life. One of the most pressing challenges is the lack of food and water. Our sub-county is very dry and we have to walk for 4km to get water. Sometimes we have to go without food, especially when I don't get work in the irrigation farms. Life is very hard for me here."

"Since May 2021, my husband who works as a policeman has not come home and this has left me as the sole provider for the family. Because of this, we are faced with the challenge of lack of food since I depend on occasional casual work to provide for my family. School fees have become a challenge also since my children who are in secondary school have fee balance summing up to $510 dollars. It saddens me so much whenever my children are chased from school because of a lack of tuition fees."