"My current goal is to ensure that my children's education is not interrupted because of fee arrears. I have been struggling to raise fees for them, so receiving the monthly transfer is a big relief to me. I am hoping that they will continue with their studies undisturbed and realize their educational goals. Currently, I do not have a source of income that can help with paying the fees and I am relying on the transfers hence my plan is to ensure that I pay for them on time."

"I had intended to build a decent home for my family soon after getting my first transfer. I assembled all the necessary materials and began construction, but I was unable to finish due to the volume of responsibilities. I spent $200 to finish the second transfer when I got it. As my wife is currently unemployed, I spent $100 on three goats that she may raise at home. I also paid $200 to sign up for driving lessons. We used the remaining $30 to buy food for the family."

"My main objective for this year is to start purchasing and rearing goats. I had yearned for this for years, but I could not realize that goal because I never had a reliable source of income. I am confident that it is a feasible project now that I have guaranteed monthly transfers. I love goats since they are valuable live assets and sources of milk and other food items. As a result, I will provide for my family's needs after GiveDirectly's transfer. Since my house is not in a good condition I also aim to repair the areas that are in worse shape."

"When I received my first transfer of $550, I used $360 from it to buy two dairy cows that were almost calving then. The decision to buy these dairy cows was informed by the fact that we did not have any cows to keep then. I then used almost the entire second transfer of $530 to buy basic household needs including food, clothes and even school needs for my children. I am so happy and grateful for the transformation that GiveDirectly has brought in my life. Being a single mother and having everyone look up to me for almost everything made it very hard for me to achieve some of the things that I have achieved with GiveDirectly transfers. This is because I normally rely on odd casual jobs to make ends meet which makes it hard for me to save any money to be able to do such investments."

"When we received our second transfer of $5500, we used $250 to clear debts owed to us as a family. This is money that had been borrowed from a relative and which was used to pay school fees for our children. The debts had stayed for a long time before we could clear and we thought this was a perfect opportunity to clear the debts. We are so happy that we have finally cleared the debts. Had we not received GiveDirectly transfers then we would not have been able to clear the debts yet. We used another $150 to seek medical treatment for our child who fell sick shortly before we received the transfer. The transfer became so much helpful to us at a time that we would have been helpless as a family. We had tried taking our child to local dispensary which did not bore much fruits and it is only through GiveDirectly transfers that we were able to get a lasting solution for our child. We are so happy that he has recovered fully and already going about his normal work. We normally rely on small business to make income which gives us hardly enough to buy food and meet other basic household needs."

"Lack of food is the challenge I am currently facing. The community has had no rain for the last five years. Since then I have been struggling with casual jobs earning approximately $30 per month. My family takes one meal per day thus the children's health has gown down."

"For many years, I have been living in a small, grass-thatched structure that was not enough to fully accommodate me and my grandchild plus our household commodities. In most cases, some of the household items were remaining outside because of the condition of our shelter. I had to seek shelter from our neighbours whenever I received visitors in my home which is very shameful. I spent the recent transfer to complete the construction of my two-roomed house that I started with my first transfer. I bought building materials like iron sheets and paid the labour charge. After that, I used $100 to support the education of my granddaughter who is in secondary school. She was left under my care after her all parent died 5 years ago. Lastly, I used the remaining amount to acquire enough food for the family because we did not have food in our stores. Earlier, we could sleep without food for 2 days every week."

"I have been obsessed with what I can do to make life bearable for my family. Since I do not have any other source of income except the current underperforming business, I had set up a goal of spending a portion of my monthly transfers to acquire additional stock. With diversified stock, I shall realize increased sales translating to increased family income. As a result, catering to the family's education and acquiring food will not be as stressful as it had been for me in the past."

"With 5 children in secondary school providing for their educational needs has been a big challenge for me. I am a widow after my spouse died in 2018. I assumed the responsibility of raising the family alone since then. I had desired to provide a quality education for my children so that they may have a better future to transform our family out of poverty. My efforts were almost in vain since they were always out of school because of huge fee balances. The coming of GiveDirectly in our area was a great boost. I spent $500 of the transfer to pay part of their school fees. Currently, I am happy that two of the kids have completed their secondary education although they still have pending arrears. I also used the remaining amount to purchase new school uniforms for 3 children who were put on worn-out uniforms which were making them uncomfortable in class."

"In my opinion, GiveDirectly did well in enrolling every person in the village without excluding anyone that qualified for the program. I loved the fact that they conducted in-person visits to our household and explained the whole process before enrolling us. I wish it would continue to support people in our village since the drought has struck our area hard."