"My project has now begun. This is the biggest difference in my daily life. If all goes well, I will be able to generate income to lift our standard of living. I plan to use my oxen to plough farms of people who do not intend to own their own hence need my services. I will earn some cash from there to meet our needs. I am grateful for the funds."

"It's unusual to receive either calls or messages, especially at the wee hours so when I was awoken by the sound of the phone I wondered what the message could be. When I checked and confirmed that I had received money from GiveDirectly I felt so happy and I immediately called my spouse to share the good news with him."

"I was happy to receive the first transfer from GiveDirectly, it was around 5.30 AM in the morning and I am grateful."

"I am planning to expand my freelance writing work which means I will need to employ more people to help me. In so doing, I will not only have increased my earnings but also created jobs for other unemployed youth in this slum. I also intend to start a tree seedling nursery business on a piece of land provided to the youth by an NGO in our area. I have noticed that this is a good business and I know I can make some good profits out of it if well executed."

"Financial constraint as a result of poor income is my biggest hardship. This affects our ability to meet family needs especially food, medical and housing expenses for my husband. In December 2017, I suffered from dengue fever but I could only raise 300 shillings at the hospital and my bill was 600 shillings. Besides this, sometimes we are forced to go without food for two consecutive days. My husband is also unable to raise his house rent of 1700 shillings in time, a situation that rendered him homeless for 5 months after the landlord locked his room. In this regard, we struggle so much to sustain the family."

"The biggest hardship I face is living in a bad conditioned house. Since we live in a plain area, we are often adversely affected by the floods which makes our house extremely inhabitable. This condition has often led to massive destruction of our property hence subjecting us to constant suffering."

"The biggest hardship is that during wet seasons like these we have not much work in the farms. We work and at times not paid with promises for the following day. This causes my family to miss meal."

"This money means that I will be able to build a new house. Building a new house is of great priority because my mother was a second wife and my step mother refused the Givedirectly program and sent us away from her home, that is why I relocated to this little shelter which I must use the cash transfer to build a new house. I had to send my wife back to her parents because the weather condition in this current house would affect the health of our child. I will set aside part of the transfer to buy some cows that shall eventually produce milk for the family."

"My ambition has been to ensure that my children obtain high quality education which will enable them to get good job and be independent in life. I shall therefore spend this money to educate them since I always look to them with sigh of hope. They have the potential to do well in their academics."

"The message came as a surprise and I had to wake my daughter up to try and read since I never attended any school when I was young and could not read, unfortunately we were not able to nevigate the phone menu to the massages section which made me lose that hope of knowing what the message had to convey at that moment. since I was preparing to get to my daily routine in the farm, I left my daughter with the phone who later came running and shouting that he had finally made to access the message and that it was from GiveDirectly. On asking what the message was all about, she could say nothing but "money". I droped the hoe I was using in the farm and in that celebratory mood I joinned my daughter as we run back home. This was a really the happiest day in my life since we were filled with lots of joy."