"The biggest challenge we have is that we do not have enough money to do business as we want. We started a small business of selling traditional beverages like banana beer and sorghum beverage. We used a capital of $50. We are now having a big family of 6 children which means that we have to improve on the business to be able to feed them but we don't have enough funds."

"I lost my husband almost 26 years old. I felt lonely and lived alone for many years till my son decided to build a house for me next to his family of his wife and children. Currently, I have enough land for farming but the challenge is that I do not have strength to cultivate, sometimes, I have to give people money to do farming for me yet I do not have money."

"I live in poverty because I do not have enough livestock. The fact that we do not have the eggs which can help us to get some proteins, it is a bit challenging as well. I do not have enough land too which can help my family in farming yet I am not strong enough to work for others or doing casual jobs.Moreover, my house is very old and some trees can fall at any time due to the rain"

"GiveDirectly has given both my husband and I  the motivation to keep going. The material and emotional strides we have made as a family and as a community would not have been possible without them. GiveDirectly gives a new lease on life to those who are at their lowest, for which I applaud them and hope they will continue to impact many more lives in the future."

"Give Directly does a good job of ensuring that the process of aiding the poor is fair and open, ensuring that no one is left out and that no one is mistreated during the process."

"Before the transfers, I never had cows before as I had no source of income. I used the transfers to buy female cows for kshs 35,000. I decided to buy female cows for milk production for my family's consumption and sale. I do casual work to earn a living and most of the time the pay is too little to cater for my basic needs, I do top it up with the money from selling milk and this has enabled me to take care of other basic needs like food, clothing and kids school fees. I used the remaining part of the transfers to buy a piece of three-seater furniture. I used to fear hosting friends and relatives as I never had enough seats for them, but my self-esteem has improved since I started receiving transfers from GiveDirectly."

"In my opinion, what GiveDirectly does well in this program is that we receive the transfers in lumpsum amounts. This helps for planning purposes in the future. Another thing that GiveDirectly does well is that the unlearned recipients are taught how to use mpesa. This has reduced the number of theft cases in the community as most of us managed to change our pins to a more secure code. To avoid household conflict, what needs to be done differently is enrolling all the individuals in the household. During enrollment, those individuals who did not have responsibilities by then were left out of the program yet these are the same people who steal from their old and vulnerable parents. Another thing that needs to be done differently is enrolling all the communities in a specific village for uniformity purposes and this will prevent too many complaints coming from the communities that are left out during the registration."

"My goal currently is to buy new iron sheets in order to renovate my roof which is dilapidated and leaks when it rains. My target is 22 pieces of iron sheets which I am hoping to accomplish through the transfers. I will be saving part of the money to buy at least two iron sheets every month. I am also planning to buy livestock such as goats and chickens to keep in my compound. These are assets to me that I can readily rely on when they reproduce and increase in number. Through the livestock, I will be able to raise fees for my two children as they further their studies in the near future."

"I am so much grateful to GiveDirectly and how much it has been of great help to me and my family. Being a father of 8 and with two children who are still in their secondary and primary level of studies, I have received great support through GiveDirectly transfers. I have managed to support my two children in school quite easily without having to sell any of my livestock as I would do initially. Right now, I own more than fifty goats in my farm. This is to mean that I will be in a good position to sponsor one of my children who is joining college soon. My plan is to continue using the transfers that I get from GiveDirectly each month to pay school fees and meet other little needs for my family without having to sell some of my livestock. It has also helped me a great deal in making sure that I get back to my original position as a pastoralist. Initially, I had sold some of my livestock after I fell ill while working for a company in Nairobi. I fell ill to an extent of being admitted in hospital and undergoing a surgery too. This ate up all my resources until I had to resign and come back home to start all over again. I am so proud of the steps that I have taken. Despite the ravaging drought, I must admit that we have so many livestock that will enable us pay school fees for our last born son."