"My expectation in the next six months is for my children, especially my daughter who is sitting her national examinations this year, to have minimal disruption in school. I want to ensure to have cleared paying her school fees and allow her an ample to prepare for the exams."

"In the next six months, I hope to have prepared well for the exams and that I will have all the required materials to sit the exams. Passing these exams means I will be able to join a good college and pursue my higher learning."

"I have been down with malaria infection whole of this week therefore my productivity has gone down. I am a casual labourer in the village when not tilling my own farm. Consequently, my children have not had enough meals because I no longer have the energy to look for jobs in the village due to my sickness."

"Since the demise of my husband almost 11 years ago, I have been living a life of sorrow because even owning a house has been a challenge to me. This has forced me and my daughter to seek refuge from my mother-in-law's house but likely enough, one of our relatives offered me the support of 22 pieces of iron sheets to construct a separate structure for myself and pay him later once lucky comes on my favor. I am proud to learn that the arrival of GiveDirectly means a better life to me since I will be able to sort the debt of Ksh 13,200 for the iron sheets and this will give me the confidence of owning my house. On the other hand, I plan to invest in livestock rearing in order to help me in paying school fees for my daughter when she advances her studies to secondary. To accomplish this, I intend to use 580 dollars to buy 10 goats at $30 each and 2 indigenous dairy cows at $140 each. This will change my livelihood for the better and hence, a transformation that I have ever wished."

"Lack of a dependable source of income to cater to my family's basic needs has long been my biggest hardship in life. This is because, I used to depend on my husband's income from his casual jobs, but ever since he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, it rendered him jobless. I am forced to engage in odd jobs like burning charcoal in order to provide for the family, a job that is low paying and energy draining."

"Food insecurity is the biggest hardship in my life. My husband is 70 years old and farming using the old ways is very labor-intensive. I am the only hope for my family when it comes to weeding the farm which has resulted to poor produce. This has forced us to constantly change our meals from 3 to 2 meals per day."

"My desire is food security in my home. I therefore plan to purchase oxen and an ox plough at a cost of 44,000 shillings to expand my farming so I can adequately feed my family. The balance will go into my son's secondary education."

"My biggest struggle is inadequate finances to meet my needs such as health and food. With old age comes deteriorating health such as poor eyesight, back pains etc thus a lot is spent on treatment. Since I can no longer work, I depend solely on my offspring for my survival which I feel is a burden to them because they too have their own families now."

"My husband left me with eight children that I had to raise single handedly. Since then my job has been burning charcoal and the much I get is 1000 shillings a month. This situation made it difficult to educate them and only one managed to complete primary education. This forced my daughters to get married at a tender age because life was very difficult at home. My sons are working as casual labourers and they are suffering too. I feel like I failed as a parent but there is nothing I could do about it. All this resulted from lack of from support my spouse."

"I expect my life to improve by an additional source of income. In the next six months, I will open a clothes business in a nearby town. this will then help me rake in a little more money that will go into use to meet my family's household needs."