"I was woken up by a message alert on my phone that morning. I was curious to know who could have sent a message at that hour thus I went ahead to read it. I was instantly filled with happiness when I confirmed that GiveDirectly had finally honoured their promise by sending us money. I thanked them for this fortune."

"In the next six months, I believe that we would be living a better life since I would have bought a cow. With these transfers, I have been able to build two houses, one for our children and one for the family. Having added one cow to my stock will be a great achievement and with the little income which I would be earning through the casual jobs would be enough to cater to other family needs."

"I expect to have started my course in my dream course. I will be growing towards a better life in the files of supply chain management and procurement. With the skills in hand, I will be getting ready for a employment that will be my best bet to a good life."

"Lack of adequate income has been the biggest hardship in life. My husband, who is our sole breadwinner is a carpenter, and since he doesn't have the required capital to run his own workshop, he works in a friend's workshop and that is where he earns his daily wage. On average he brings home ksh 300, which can only meet food expenses. Considering that there are other pressing needs like education and healthcare, oftentimes it is very constraining to pull all this together, and as a result, we have had to compromise on lots of things. Like for instance the house we are living in, - a section of the roof is leaking and considering that I have 7 children, the space in there is not enough. We have had to forego the comfort of a spacious house so that children can at least have a decent meal and tuition fee. Being food secured will enable my husband to save enough money for his carpentry business."

"After my spouse passed away I was left with the responsibility of taking care of my family with the livelihood of casual work in my villager under the plantation sector.Truly speaking this burden was too much for me because the income was meager to take care of my family members.Most of the times my children missed meals which made them suffer from deficiencies. I would cry out not knowing where I could find assistance since my in-laws and relatives had disown me saying they also had responsibilities to take care of. My life is different in that I own a dairy cow which my family gets milk for consumption. This has greatly shown alot of difference in their health since they are assured of taking milk on those days when I do not have money to buy food. In addition, I planted sugarcane as another way of investing the transfers I got from GiveDirectly. I am hoping in a few months I will earn a decent amount of money from the sales of the sugarcane then use on other development projects of my family."

"My priority has been paying school fees for my son who is in university since I believe that a quality education leads to a successful life. I am happy that Give Directly came to my rescue when my son was on the verge of not sitting for his end of semester examination due to the lump-sum arrears he had in school. Paying a bit of the arrears made him sit for the exams and now he has already completed his university education. All my gratitude goes to GiveDirectly for sponsoring part of my child's education. I am glad that my son have completed his studies which makes me hopeful that soon he will get a job that will transform his life better."

"When I look at my new house, I see a miracle and a big relief in life. I do not know if I would have built the house if it were not for GD. In my mind, I had a plan of building a bigger house than the one I had before the transfer. The truth is I did not know how to get finances of buying building materials to use in putting up a house of my preference. Due to this, building a bigger house was only a dream in my life until I received my transfer from GD. At first, I was not sure I will receive the money hence had to wait until the very day I received the notification on my phone about the transfer. Once again I had to check my balance to be sure I got the money as was promised. After confirming, I went and paid for building materials in our nearby hardware which I used in putting up the house I have now. I thank GD for helping me achieve my goal of putting up a new house. It is a dream come true for me."

"School fees arrears has been my major burden in my life for the last four years. I have really struggled to ensure my children are always in school studying. This is because I had a small income from farming from a small piece of land my husband inherited from his parents and we had to boost the income with casual work which was not very consistent. Since we had other needs of the family to deal with, we were not able to pay school fees arrears for my children in time. They would be sent home regularly ad this really affected their performance in school because they were out of school most of the time while others were studying. I thank GD so much because ever since I received my transfers, my children have never been sent home again. I cleared their arrears with the transfer and since then I have been paying their arrears on a monthly basis which has helped me keep up with the payments."

"I have a big family of seven children and we do not always fit well in our previous house. This is because it was not big enough to accommodate us well especially at night. It was a one-roomed house and I would have to sent some of my children to sleep at my neighbours' house. Whenever I had visitors, I would have to really struggle to find sleep place for my visitors. As a result, I would not always feel comfortable asking for friends to visit me for sleep-overs. Due to this problem I have gone through for the last year, I started planning of how to get building materials to build a new house. At the time I was getting my first transfer, I had not even made any savings hence I used my transfer to buy building materials such as nails, cement, iron sheets and timber. I have used the materials to put up a three-bedroom house which accommodates us well with a good number of visitors. Thanks to GD for the transfer I no longer shy off from welcoming friends to visit me."

"I managed to clear my son's fees for the entire term which made him have comfortably stay in school without any fear of being sent away from school due to delays in fees payments. Having planted sugarcane is another difference in my life that I shouldn't have gained without GiveDirectly's transfers. This is because in my area, planting sugarcane is very marketable ,therefore, I believe from the harvest I will get early next year and sell in the nearby factory. These profits will assist me in paying school fees for my children and also provide for my family's needs without any struggles"