"I heard the phone buzzing but I could not read the message. I called upon the trustee who informed me about the cash transfer on that particular day. I was overwhelmed with joy."

"I was woken up by a mobile money message. I gave my co wife to read the message for me. She informed me that I had received UGX1730250 on mt account."

"In my own opinion, I am happier and healthier compared to the past when we were malnurished and desperate. We used to have a meal in a day. The cash transfers have transformed my living standards. We also acquired property and household items that we did not have."

"My trustee informed me about the cash transfer. I felt very happy at that moment because I had never held such an enormous amount of money."

"In the next six months, I expect my life to change in that I shall be more empowered financially than I am now. I am looking forward to buying a dairy cow by saving up from my poultry keeping business as well as casual labour proceeds. All these will see my living standards and that of my family improve by a great deal."

"It was around 6 am when I was doing my casual jobs as usual then I heard my ringing. Because I was busy I ignored the message, but then I became nervous. I decided to check what the message was all about. After checking, I realized it was from GiveDirectly. They had debited my first transfer. I was very happy and I decided to go home and started planning on how I will spend the money."

"Having taken my son to school has really brought the biggest difference in my life. This is because he had finished his primary school education and there were no hopes of him joining high school because of the poverty life that we had. The little amount of money that I was earning was too little for him to join secondary school. After getting my first transfer, my first priority was to send him to school. I am now so happy seeing my son studying without any difficulties. I never got a chance to go to school and I did not want to see my children go through the same. I am happy seeing my dream come true because I am sure their future shall be bright as compared to mine. I have been able to achieve all this through financial support from GiveDirectly. I feel so blessed and happy for being among the beneficiaries."

"Paying for my son's school fees was a big challenge for me. Being a single mother without a stable source of income, I never paid for their school fees on time and because of late payment, my children would be at times sent home and would stay for weeks. After receiving this money, I paid for all of them the fee arrears, One in college and in high school. I also bought a cow which I am expecting it reproduce and have many of them. Besides being my asset, I will be getting milk to sell to earn an income. This is will be a source of income for me. I believe if it wasn't GiveDirectly, then it would have taken me years to realise this."

"The money came as a big relief to me. My house collapsed after heavy rains and since then, I have not been able to access a good shelter because I did not have the means and resources to build a new home. When I received my first transfer, I purchased enough building materials that include iron sheets, building poles and nails. I also paid for the labour. I am now in the process of building a new house, which makes it be the biggest difference in my daily life."

"Building a new home with a bigger space is the greatest achievement I have had so far. I used to live in a house that was in a very bad condition. The walls had cracks and the roof always leaked during the rainy season. Due to my lowly financial status, I couldn't save enough money for this purpose. However, much I wanted to reach this goal, I had to wait. GiveDirectly assistance finally came through. I couldn't believe to have bought the required building materials at ago. I am now in the process of constructing a new one which gives me so much peace that I didn't have previously."