"Our biggest challenge is food. I have my 4 children with me and 2 grandchildren. To provide for everyone is a challenge. The little money we make from casual work goes to food all the time with nothing left for other developments like a good house or more livestock or household furniture. This is all because farming is not reliable in our area due to bad climate conditions."

"My biggest challenge is money. My house fell on one side which limits my house utilization to just the two front rooms. My bed was broken as the house fell due to cyclone Ana. Now I sleep uncomfortably in the living room with my bicycle next to me and water reserves. If I had money, i would have renovated the house. I also don't have food because of money. The casual work I do doesn't pay me enough to afford eating comfortably. I also lack kitchen utensils and other household necessities."

"Givedirectly is doing very well in helping us the poor people to better our lives. Many people including me were not even thinking of building a house but today we are all happy about this help. I love everything givedirectly is doing and I thing all is going well for us."

"My aim is to take my kids to school and put a solar lighting system in my home. I already have the small Delight lights for $5 in the house; I, however, want $300 worth of solar lights for my home. The small lights are very limiting since I have to move around with them, which usually means the rest of the people within my home are left in darkness. I will be required to pay $0.5 a day for these lights, so I will be setting aside $1 a month for these payments once I have them installed to ensure my house is continually lit all year round. I also want to spend some of this money taking care of the needs of my children in college. I do not make much from the small business I run out of my brother's shop since it can only sustain basic needs. I hope to direct these transfers to the areas I told you about since I have not had much time to take care of them."

"Paying school fees for my first-grade child while also paying other household bills has been incredibly hard. I am thankful that, after receiving the transfers from GiveDirectly, I have been able to pay $10 each month to cover a portion of the required amount. Through this, I have reduced my school debt to $28 at the moment, which I believe I will have cleared before the end of the term in April. When I finish paying, I plan to start a business where I will buy groceries from Mariakani Market and sell them to the local community. This business will be useful not only for paying household bills, but also for ensuring that I pay my son's school fees on time."

"My son, George, is currently in his second year at the university. Considering that am retired, I do receive enough from my retirement fund to cover the $330 fee amount, required per academic term. Besides, I have another son in grade seven who counts on me for provision. Particularly, I plan to continue supporting George’s education through cash transfers. I would be glad to see him graduate in two years' time courtesy of the transfers."

"Earlier this year, 2022. I planted maize and groundnuts on a quarter a acre piece of land. It's has been very dry this year, I lost all my crops. We currently buy 1kg of maize at $ 0.80, which is very expensive. The price is not dropping, could get worse. I depend on selling some of my goats to get money for sustainance. A goat goes for $30 now, which is low. I am worried of my food security since I now have fewer goats. The goats have also lost weight due to the drought."

"I am 74, I cannot do manual labour. This is due to my old age. It's hard for me to get a job to support my family. I can only do the simple tasks such as harvesting millet or planting. This is to just place the seeds correctly. From this I get paid $2. During dry seasons like this, one can hardly get a casual job. It's really hard for me to get food, this saddens me. When it's dry, I can only depend on burning charcoal. If I manage to get one bag of charcoal, I can sell it for $5. This can support us for a week."

"It's quite challenging to fully dependent on jobs that are extremely physical like conducting open cast mining with just crude tools. This is what I have to do every day to be able to earn $5 a day ever since my husband's demise. It happened a year ago leaving me with three children who're still schooling at primary level costing a total of $45 each academic term to settle their school fees. With the much I get from my job at the manganese mines in the next village owned by Chinese, I can only comfortably afford them food but definitely not education."

"I used to cut trees to make firewood for sale but had to stop during my last pregnancy because I had a lot of related complications. That was two years ago and since then, I haven't had any source of income other than the $5 a week I do receive from my husband who works in Garissa as motorcycle taxi rider. This has a lot of inconveniences which is already reflecting negatively on the health of my children as they all look mulnaurished. Depending solely on my husband's support, I haven't been able to offer them more than a meal per day."