"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. This is 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."

"There has been a great difference in my life and my family's wellbeing. For example, we didn't have food but now we are able to eat for we were able to buy 2 bags of maize at $50."

"Give Directly is doing everything well. You have really uplifted our livelihoods in this village. Personally, you saved me from poverty, thanks to you that I now have my own goats. I would never have reached this level easily with your help. The only thing you can improve on is to increase the transfers or to consider coming back to our village since most of the projects we started are incomplete."

"I used $150 to buy paints and to paint my house. Another $100 was used to clear a medical bill for one of our family members who needed some medical attention. We then used the remaining amount of almost $300 to buy food , clothes among other needs for my family. My house was getting old and needed some maintenance to bring out a good look but we could not have enough money to do that before. We normally rely on farming to make ends meet which has been dealt a blow by the prevailing weather conditions."

"I used $300 to start a shop keeping business and the remaining $250 to buy clothes, food for my children during christmas.. The money came at a time when we were celebrating Christmas and for once my children too celebrated like everyone else since we had money unlike the previous years when we did not have any or we had less. We normally rely on farming to raise money that helps us make ends meet but the same has been greatly dealt a blow by the prevailing weather conditions. I am so happy that my shop keeping business is doing well and I expect the profits to keep increasing as the time goes by. I am a widowed mother of three with my first born joining secondary school as from next year. It is for this reason that I thought of starting a business that will help me raise money to pair his school fees."

"I was with my helper that day when I heard my phone ring. I got the phone and gave it to him to read and tell me what message it was since I could not read it by myself. I felt very happy when he informed me that GiveDirectly had finally made good their promise of sending us cash. I was expecting to receive the money but not on that particular day. I felt happy that I was finally going to destroy out old house and put up a brand new one. This is a project that was always in my mind but I could not do it because of lack of enough finances. I later withdrew the money and began the construction of a house as we had earlier planned."

"I have been suffering to send my children to school and also to improve my house but receiving my first transfer came as a great relief and happiness that I can't explain."

"I have peace cause I no more worry about feeding my family"

"I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. This was because I had a lot of plans in my mind that I had always wanted to accomplish but which I could not do because of lack of money. I had done a tailoring course midway and had to drop it when I failed to raise enough money to clear the fee. I also needed money to buy a sewing machine in order to start my tailoring work successfully. I went and withdrew the money the following day at a nearby centre where I bought the sewing machine and used some to pay school fees as I saved some for a business that I intend to start as soon as I receive the second transfer."

"I am in Zlee town going to school and renting at the same time. So i used my money and bought land for 133.00USD and saved the balance so that i will use it to build my house."