"I have a large family of 11 members and making them food secure has been my main challenge. I am a business lady selling vegetables at Kapkwen center only on market days. I earn $ 10 every week from the sale of vegetables and this is not enough to sustain my family for even 3 days. My husband is a heavy alcohol drinker and he hardly offers a helping hand making me the sole breadwinner."

"I worked as a shopkeeper at Langobaya village in Malindi for three years. Late December 2021 , the business was closed. The inflation affected the business thus the owner was running at a loss. Since then up to now I have not got any other job. I have a family of three members and we use 2kg of maize flour every day. It is now hard to get meal meals per day. So lack of job is the current challenge I am facing in life."

"I am currently unemployed and survival in this village is hard. To sustain myself, I ride for hire motorcycle. On a day the owner of the motorcycle gives me a target of $3. If I fail to meet the daily target, I accumulate a debt. It's stressful. Nowadays, it's difficult because a lot of young people depend on this. When I am lucky, I get only $2 a day. Mostly I get $1. This is just enough for food. This affects me because I cannot save quick enough to start goat rearing. It's also difficult buying new clothes."

"I am a single mother of 3 who depends on farming for a living. With the adverse climatic changes, farming is now uncertain as the yields are low. For instance, in May 2022, I sowed maize on my 0.5-acre of land but harvested only 4 bags of maize against the usual 9 bags on a good year. It pains me that I had to sell all of the bags to cater partly for the school fees for my son in grade 11. As of now, I have to attend casual jobs such as weeding and collecting firewood so that my family of 5 can have food for the day."

"We live in a semi-arid area, and it hardly rains which renders our farms unproductive. Even though we sometimes practice irrigation, the rivers are seasonal and can dry up with prolonged drought. Financial constraints are the biggest challenge since we depend on farming to earn a living for my family of seven."

"My wife and I are both jobless , we depend on our children who are casual labourers for basic needs . When I received this transfer , my wife advise that we buy something that we would look at later and remember the generosity of Give Directly . So settled on a cow worth $165 . As we speak , it gave birth to one calf recently and I can't wait to start enjoying the milk , we will even be selling some . I spent $105 on three goats . I also hope they shall multiply in number soon . I chose cattle because later when my children complete their primary studies , I'll sell some cows or goats to pay for their secondary school studies . Previously , we used to sleep on traditional ropes and mat beddings , so I spent $35 and $41 to buy a mattress each for my children and myself respectively . Ihave six children in primary school , they had school fees balance of $30 , which I cleared . I also bought new school uniforms for each of them and this was worth $38 . Unfortunately , one of my children fell ill , I used $60 for his medical expenses , I'm glad that he is now doing fine . Finally , I spent the balance on food items which was mainly maize flour and vegetables ."

"I felt so happy the moment I received money from GiveDirectly. It was around 4:00 pm when I saw the message and confirmed that I had indeed received the sum. At first I could not believe my eyes and it is my husband who saw the message and convinced me that we had indeed received some money. What made me feel very happy was the fact that we were finally going to be able to buy food for our family and for once , we were not going to worry of how we would get our next meal. I felt grateful up until now fir this."

"Give Directly does everything well . You have helped people who didn't houses to build good houses . Parents have now taken their children , who had dropped out of school due to school fees , back to school . People in this village are now great business owners courtesy of the money they received from Give Directly . You have brought a lot of benefits into this village . There is completely nothing to improve on ."

"Give Directly is helping a lot of people during these difficult economic times . That is the main thing that you should continue doing . We need people like you to lift others up emotionally and financially. Just continue to help others , never get tired of doing this . I see nothing to improve on because you are already perfect ."

"I pray to have a good life . My goal is to have more customers and eventually expand my grocery business . I have good luck in business with good customer service skills so I also hope to open a hotel business by January , next year . All these requires $200 and I hope to raise it from my current grocery shop ."