"I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. One of my relatives had already given me a call and he wanted to know if I had received money from GiveDirectly. I checked and confirmed that indeed I had been sent the sum of $550 by GiveDirectly. I made a call to my mother just to check whether she had received hers too and as we conversed I could hear some background noise from other villagers who were already in a celebration mood. The amount of happiness within the entire village was just amazing. To me this was a perfect opportunity to purchase a motorcycle that would greatly help me with mobility as my work required that I move from village to village in search of clients. I am so glad that this dream was made a reality courtesy of GiveDirectly transfers."

"I used $100 to pay school fees for one of my children who is in secondary school. I used another $250 to buy a heifer and the remaining amount was used to improve our house and compound. The money came at a time that I had huge school fees arears and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to clear the fee balance. I do most of the decisions alone ever since my husband was put under arrest. It is sometimes hard to make ends meet but I have to keep pushing. I am so happy that we now have one additional dairy cow and have also cleared the school fees for my child. The next couple of months shall be stress free for me and I will use the moment to look for extra money that will help me pay school fees next term."

"The biggest difference in my daily life is that we are happier as a family than we were before receiving the transfers. We not only had an opportunity to celebrate christmas in a good way but also remained with some reasonable amount of money to help us clear school fee balance for our children and to do some shopping for them. I feel so much happy for this and grateful to GiveDirectly."

"We spent $400 to clear a piece of land that we had earlier bought on credit terms and used the remaining amount of $150 to fix windows in my house and improve our house by putting up a verandah. We are so much at peace now that we have cleared the debts owed to us and which would have taken a little longer to clear had we not received the transfer from GiveDirectly. I normally do small scale farming to put food on the table for my family while my husband is a musician. Income from these sources is hardly enough to sustain the needs of our family and it is for this reason that we were unable to clear the debts owed to us. We are so grateful for the support we received from GiveDirectly and what it has done for us as a family."

"Last year, the money I received helped me a lot with the tuition costs for five of my children. Additionally, I'm hoping that I can utilize the funds this year to make sure that my kids stay in school and continue their education, which is crucial for their future. I rarely make enough money working part-time jobs to support my family's requirements, especially their nourishment. As a result, I also intend to use the donations to make sure that my family and I will have food. Moreover, getting a few hens and goats will make me happy."

"I spent the majority of last year's money from the livestock transfer on purchasing livestock. I'm glad I bought five goats because there are now eight of them and more are on their way to having kids. My son and I want to launch a kiosk business together this year. We will primarily sell maize flour and other food items through the kiosk. This will give us a source of income and enable us to meet the needs of the ballooning family. Later, once the business is established, I would like to put aside enough cash to buy a bed. Since my bed broke into pieces three years ago, I've been sleeping on the bare, dusty floor."

"The cash transfers are the only source of income my daughter and I have. Considering that we are both of advanced age, our bodies can no longer endure the physical strains of casual tasks like making charcoal to make money. Also, given the prolonged drought which has hindered farming, we are forced to spend every cent we get on food so that we do not starve. Though there is little to save for other wants, I would desire to have bought at least four goats by the end of the year."