"I was woken up by a message notification early in the morning. On checking to confirm its content, I could not hold back the joy that instantly filled my heart as I realized that the message was from GiveDirectly informing me that my first transfer was in my Mpesa account. I was greatly overjoyed on the thought that I would be able to enrol for training in tailoring."

"In the next six months, I would be financially stable and even after GD transfers end I will have a reliable source of income. I believe in the poultry investments that I have already put in place. I know that eggs in high demand within my locality. I have never been this confident before as it feels good to be empowered financially."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that through the transfer, I acquired a sewing machine that I had longed for many years after finishing my training as a tailor. I am glad that I will now open my own shop and buy textile materials and provide the tailoring services to clients thus earning an income through it. This will help me to always have money to use in supporting my family even after GiveDirectly will have stopped giving us the financial support."

"I was woken up early in the morning by a message notification from my phone. On checking to confirm the sender, it was from GiveDirectly notifying me that I had received my first transfer which they had promised us. I was very happy for the financial assistance as it would later on help me upgrade my way of living to a new status."

"Financial constraints is the biggest hardship that I face in life. I have tried taking up all sorts of odd jobs just to earn a little extra to afford taking care of the family needs but it is just never enough. My children still end up being chased away from school due to fee arrears and my sick wife who suffers from a heart related condition is still forced to do exhausting jobs which are not good for her poor state of health just so that she can help take care of the household expenses. Since I cannot afford to take her to the hospital, for the longest time that I can remember, she has been forced to live on painkillers whenever the pain becomes unbearable. I really feel frustrated as a father,husband and a man because I feel that due to my financial inadequacies, my family is really forced to live in constant and abject state of poverty."

"I was forced to get married as a second wife in order to bring home a dowry for my parents to educate my young brother who was to join secondary school. This made my life so difficult because my husband is just a peasant farmer and has no reliable source of income to support our family needs. I am forced to burn charcoal in order to get a meal and when I heard about GiveDirectly, I knew my life would change for the better. Receiving this money means meeting my family needs. I will construct an iron roofed house for myself because the one I have is a grass thatched and is leaking. Since I already have an oxen, I will buy an ox plough to help upscaling my farming and use the remaining amount to start vending vegetables at Goshi center. The income from this business will help in paying school fee for my children and sustain other family needs."

"Not having sufficient finances to enable me to take care of my family's needs is the biggest hardship that I face in life. For the past five years, the heavy burden of taking care of my six children lies heavily on me. My husband who used to help with the expenses got sick around that time and he has not been able to do any job. So strained is our finances that for the five years, my husband has been forced to live with the immense pain that he feels constantly around his stomach region since we can not afford medical costs related to seeking proper treatment. To make it worse, he also experiences excruciating pain in both his knees and legs to an extent that it becomes impossible for him to walk without support. Seeing him going through so much pain really hurts me because I feel I should do something to help him yet I do not have any way of doing so. In the end, I just end up locking myself away and crying since I do not want my children to also get affected by the whole situation."

"Currently, my life is different in that I have started my own business which I supplement with the income I get from the casual job hence lately I have been able to provide for my family with ease and save as well. Through saving, I am hopeful that someday I will be my own boss by starting a motorcycle job hence I won't have to be employed in the private sector but rather focus on my business."

"Living in a big city such as Nairobi it comes with a lot of challenges mainly when one has a business, I am saying this because I had a business and one morning my business premise was demolished. I didn't know where to start since I was rendered jobs. Then after idling around I opted to secure security job in the nearby club where I was employed as a bouncer and the income I got from it was meagre hence providing for my family was a challenge. I spent my recent transfer to buy a motorcycle purposely for motorcycle taxi business hence I am able to supplement my income and with the profits to sustain my family with ease. I have created employment opportunity since I have hired someone who rides it for me on a commision."

"Currently, my life is different in the I have been able to start a second-hand cloth business selling in the countryside. The profit from this business has enabled me to settle most of the debt and also provide for my family with no much struggles. My closest neighbours are really perplexed with the extreme change of lifestyle because they used to look down upon me as they perceived me to be a failure. My gratitude goes to GiveDirectly."