"I am a happy man, free from the arrears I had from my former high school, Through the transfers, I managed to pay $10 to access my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education results slip and the certificate. I feel so encouraged to pursue my dream of being an engineer in building and construction, already, I have set aside $20 for the course which I look forward to starting in September this year 2023 in a nearby technical training institution. at the moment, I am a teacher in a nearby primary school and the worst nightmare I have been facing every day is appearing in the school compound with the same outfit. students would make fun of it, but I appreciate GiveDirectly for coming through to my rescue. I changed my wardrobe and added more to it to make me feel so professional every time I get to the school gate. Students might mock it, but I am grateful to GiveDirectly for coming to my rescue. It only cost me $4 to change my closet and add to it to make me appear so professional every time I walk through the school's entryway. Finally, I bought a pair of male calves at $26 as an investment in with the expectation that if I am unable to pay my school fees, I will sell them and utilize the proceeds to secure my education."

"Givedirectly is a helpful organization and I am glad they came to help me and my community people."

"There are a lot of challenges that I'm faci seeng at the moment. The main challenge however, is the lack of money. This has been caused by prolonged drought and also increased inflation and cost of living in our country. Because of this, it has been difficult for me to meet my family's basic needs such as food and clothing. I have been forced to sell all my chicken to be able to make ends meet. This saddens me greatly since I'm left only with some goats and empty chicken houses."

"My husband has been dealing with a rare illness for some time. As a result, he cannot work and is constantly at home. As a result, supporting my family has been difficult. Because of the current scenario, I have not set any new goals, but I have decided to use my transfer to meet my family's urgent educational and nutritional needs. I hope to prioritize paying school fees and purchasing food for my family with the transfers. I believe it will be simple for me to support my family. Without the GiveDirectly's transfers, this would not be possible owing to the hard situations we experience as a family."

"Hunger is the biggest challenge. I must get a casual job to buy food. Additionally, food is very expensive now. One gets paid $2 a day. This amount is very little and cannot sustain my family. Meaning we have inadequate food for us. During very difficult days we're forced to sleep without eating food. This makes me sad, being unable to feed family."

"My biggest challenge is getting food. I buy all the food we consume as a family. It's really difficult buying with the high cost of living. Most food items are expensive. This has affected my ability to provide for my family. I depend on casual jobs which pay $2.50 daily. It's not enough for my family. I'm 73, which means few people can offer me a job. It has made it very difficult for me. The main casual jobs I do include; digging, clearing bushes, planting, or harvesting."

"My primary ambition is to obtain a plot of land to build my home. I still live in my father's compound, but I believe it would be more peaceful for us to be in a home where we could operate some of the family initiatives more smoothly. With the help of the monthly transfers, I hope to save a portion of my other transfers and business revenues to purchase a plot. I am hoping to complete this aspiration by the end of the year because I have saved up some money for it. Getting my parcel will be the most meaningful accomplishment I have ever had in life."

"Every parent hopes to see their children through their education. It is a responsibility that has been bestowed upon us and it can be huge and insurmountable at times. Raising school fees has not been a walk in the park for us, so hard is the situation that our son, Hillary, who had secured a placement at Kenya Medical Training College and was due to join in March but it was not possible because of lack of school fees and so he had to defer to sometime in May, another girl is also due to join the college in Nakuru to pursue a certificate course in Community Development. We are so hopeful about our children attaining their dreams and aspirations of pursuing their dream courses and eventually leading a better life than ours but this has remained a pipe dream."

"My wife passed on last year and life took a different turn for me since I am left alone to fend for my child and grandchild. When she was alive we could make a living together, life was better as I was not struggling to put food on the table like it is the case now. We are grappling with a devastating food insecurity that has made our lives unbearable and full of misery. This is coming in the wake of prolonged drought that has wiped down the crops and vegetation. Our livestock too had been hit hard by the drought, some even died. The cost of living has gone high and sometimes I cannot afford to buy food since it is expensive, a Kg of maize flour is $0.9 which is costly given that I am a person of little means who have no sustainable income."

"The separation from my husband posed me with a lot of challenges that have made my life miserable at the moment. With 6 children, two of them being in high school is another blow to me since I am compelled to take care of them single-handedly. In October last year, luck was not my portion, the kiosk where I used to work in was demolished because it was just on the roadside. This made me jobless and it forced me to come back home to venture into farming and other casual jobs. The prolonged drought in our area is another major concern since it has made farming unreliable. The situation at the moment is worse and most of the time, my children stay at home for a month before they resume classes. Watching them desperately at home pisses me off since I am quite sure their life is at stake. This has devoured my hope for a better future since their performances are affected. I, therefore, consider the lack of a reliable source of income as my biggest challenge."