"My greatest desire has been to construct a good house for my family. Currently, I am living in a small, leaking house which serves as my kitchen at the same time. Receiving this money means fulfillment of my wish of owning a decent shelter. I am planning to spend $ 300 to build a two-roomed house, one room for myself and the other for my children and I will also use $150 to purchase bedding."

""Unemployment becomes my biggest hardship. I separated with my husband 10 years ago who was the one providing for my family. Since then life has never been the same again. I depend on casual jobs which earns me 150 shillings in a day and this is not enough to cater to my basic needs.""

"The biggest hardship we have faced in life is unfavourable climate. Owing to that, we have been unable to harvest sufficient crops especially maize in our region yet we entirely relied on it. Since the land under cultivation is only one acre, we harvest approximately 2 bags of maize which is barely enough to sustain a family of 3 for one year. This forced my husband to look for an alternative source of income as a security guard in the city earning a gross salary of Kenya Shillings 12,000. Therefore, Give Directly's grants will be boost in our lives."

"My husband is the sole provider for this family yet he is just a casual labourer. The burden is so huge that he cannot meet our needs fully. This makes it difficult to raise as little as 1200 shillings for my children school fees in a year. My ambition is to make sure my children get educated enough to be able to secure jobs in the formal sector. I will therefore use this transfer to purchase livestock for rearing so as to finance their education."

"The biggest hardship I have faced, and still facing, is having to live in a house that is leaking in almost every corner. Every rainy season I get a lot of problems catching sleep because of the water that is dripping making the entire house wet. I have no means of building a better house now because of lack of finances."

"I never went to school and I have never been employed. That means whatever is left for me to depend on is farming. Farming is never an assured venture in this area because of prolonged droughts that hit us every now and again. The biggest hardship I have ever faced is putting food on the table for my family. I have been counting losses each and every planting season due to drought. I have now resorted to being a casual labourer in people's farms because that is what you are sure of getting returns from your labour."

"Receiving this money means achieving my dream of giving my family a better shelter. I have had this desire for a very long time because our current house is in bad state. The walls are weak and they have started collapsing. This makes it unsafe for us especially during heavy rainfall and strong winds. I will also purchase cows and continue with my livestock rearing project."

"Since my childhood to date, my dream job has been teaching. Unfortunately, while I was in form two (secondary school), my single parent(mother) refused to pay my school fees though she could afford it. As a result, I dropped out of school. Accordingly, my dream shattered because no one else came to my rescue. Hence, the biggest hardship I have faced in life is dropping out of school when I dearly needed to pursue my dream course. To date, I feel that I have failed in life."

"Receiving this money means that my family shall afford to buy a mature cow because we currently own a small calf that may take years to mature. In our community, cattle are highly valued because they are a sign of wealth and a source of milk for consumption and sale. Since we do not have a reliable source of income, we almost always strive to meet our basic needs and cannot afford to engage in other developmental projects."

"I have a plan of investing on livestock farming when I receive this money. Livestock farming is better for me at this old age since it does not involve a lot of physical work. I will buy one dairy cow to help me get milk for consumption. I buy milk when I have a little money but most of the time I do without. I will also buy two oxen to help me plough my farm. This will save me a lot of energy. The three will cost me around 200 USD each."