"My wife fell ill two years ago when she was expecting our first born.Initially it was a normal headache but within a span of one week,It had already affected her eyes.As a result,she lost her eyesight completely.Since then,we have been in and out of hospital trying to get medication.The last visit a year ago diagnosed a growth on one of her nerves which requires surgery to restore her sight.With my little income,I have not been able to raise the required amount which was quoted to be close to half a million shillings.I have also not been able to get assistance from relatives to secure thos delicate surgery.Everything in the home has also been affected by this misfortune since she cannot even tend to our young child let alone all her duties in the home.It has been a struggle which I pray comes to an end one day.This is the biggest hardship I have faced."

"Being food secured is one thing that I've been yearning to achieve in my life. At the moment, I spend almost 90% of my daily earnings on food purchases from the shops leaving none for other pressing needs like shelter, education, and health care for the family. Now that we are enrolled in the program, I foresee a better future as I intend to invest part of my transfers in improving farming techniques. First, I will purchase oxen and its plougher to facilitate easy and timely cultivation. This will double my harvests and that means food security for us. Again, the house we are currently living in is in a deplorable condition, and every time it rains at night, my family is subjected to cold. Consequently, I will use the remaining part of the transfers to improve it. And that is what receiving this money means to me."

"Recieving this money means, I can complete the construction of my permanent house. I had started constructing it but failed to finish since I had inadequate income. It's been very costly for me living in a thatched house because it necessitates renovation almost annually yet the thatch material is scarce and expensive."

"When I recieve this money, it will enable me to renovate my house and buy livestock. The house I sleep in isn't fully complete and the cow would produce for me milk to take."

"I earn about 4000 shillings a month from my charcoal business. This amount is too little to cater for the education of my 2 boys in secondary school and my girl who will be joining them early next year. In a term, am required to pay 9500 shillings for each which has been next to impossible given the other needs we have to meet such as food. This has led to a build up of huge fee balances for example one of my sons owes the school 15,050 shillings. "

"My biggest hardship is food insecurity. Since we only harvested 2 bags of maize last season, we now have to spend more to buy from shops to feed my family of 10 people. With an income of 1000 shillings a month from charcoal making, I cannot sufficiently provide for them and we are sometimes forced to skip a meal or two. "

"In the next six months, I would have bought a cow and will now save part of my earnings from casual jobs to start poultry farming. I intend to start this as I can manage running my home with the little income which I usually get from casual jobs. With the two sources of income, that is from the cattle's milk and my poultry farm, I will permanently stop doing casual jobs because I will now be financially stable"

"The moment I received my money I remember it was very early in the morning when I heard the message tone on my phone. Immediately I reached out to check it. To my full surprise, it was a message from GiveDirectly confirming that I have received a sum of 55000 KES. I felt so happy because I have never received such an amount of money before. I knew from that point that I will be in a position to buy a dairy cow to cut the daily cost of buying milk. My family members were so happy when I informed them about the good news."

"I am extremely happy because I purchased agricultural tools. Previously, I had no oxen and ox-plough of my own. I had to carry out casual labour in exchange for oxen and ox-plough to till my farm lands. I am now very confident that I will produce abundant food crops with these agricultural inputs. I am very grateful to GiveDirectly for the cash transfers."

"The most evident impact is that I have acquired household items most especially a bed, a mattress and livestock that I could not afford in the past. I had no plans of ever acquiring livestock in the near future. I am glad that the cash transfer has made it possible within a shortest period of time."