"I am Salina with a family of 10, my husband is a carpenter. He has a dislocated hip joint, fell when he was a boy. When we were newly married he used to work well without experiencing pains on his hip. Initially, he could build houses and earn on a good day $5. Since 2012, his hip joint has been causing him pain, which saddens us. We took him to hospital but it's too late. Now he only works minimally and can hardly support us. He can only manage $2 a day, and sometimes he cannot work due to the pain. This affects us immensely, we are not able to get meals daily."

"When my mother passed on in 2016, I took over her responsibilities of raising my 2 siblings. My father remarried and he then abdicated his father's duties to us. Therefore to make ends meet, I attend casual jobs like charcoal burning and land cultivation to earn $2 daily. All of this only caters for the food for the household and I have nothing to pay for school fees for my siblings. It pains me to see my family's anguish in poverty as tomorrow is almost uncalled for we live from hand to mouth."

"The biggest difference in my daily life since receiving the first transfer is the peace of mind that my children are experiencing as a result of improved sleeping conditions. They used to wait until we were finished with the kitchen before going to sleep, but now they can sleep whenever they want in their separate room. They are happy and hopeful that they will soon be sleeping on a new bed and bedding, despite the fact that they have not gotten all of the sleeping materials."

"My first priority after receiving the first transfer was to go grocery shopping because we had been sleeping hungry for several days. I spent the first $20 on dry maize grains and green groceries that we desperately needed in the house. I also sent out $55 to my husband, who was at work at the time. His pay had been delayed, and he needed to catch up on his rent. I deposited the remaining $450 with the land owner and promised to clear the pending $150 in the next two months because we had a set plan to buy a piece of land so that we could move out of the family land. My family of three is confident that we will soon be relocating to the new plot of land where we will build a new shelter and begin new farming projects."

"After receiving the first transfer, I am grateful for the opportunity to accomplish much that would not have been possible without the support. The biggest difference in my daily life is having access to a piece of land that I can farm on to increase food production for my family after making a $220 first deposit. I had been leasing from the neighborhood to a land that would not guarantee a return, especially given the adverse weather conditions that had always reduced production."

"I spent $180 on 19 iron sheets used in the construction of a new house to replace the single old one that served multiple functions. My children had been sleeping in poor conditions due to a lack of space in the house; after building a new house, they now have more space and clean bedding. I also purchased $30 worth of wood to complete the wall construction and $20 worth of roofing frames. We could not afford to spend a lot of money on labor because my husband is a contractor, except when we needed to roof the new house because he didn't have much experience fixing roofs. I also paid $40 in school fees for my four primary school school children. I later spent the remainder on foodstuffs that we still use today."

"I used a portion of my first transfer to build a new house after purchasing 22 iron sheets for $10 each, paying $50 to the contractor who raised the walls, and purchasing nails and wood to complete the entire house's construction. We had been living in a single house with my large family of 12, so building a new house with more space has been a huge relief for us. I also purchased two goats for $35 each, intending to breed and sell the offspring when they reproduce. In addition, when I was admitted, I paid $50 to the hospital to cover my medical bill and saved the remainder, which I have been using to buy food for my family."

"My life long dream would be expanding my business into a much larger outfit. I make a living primarily from buying fruits at Bamba and selling them at Kasimbijini at my little kibanda. The plan is to one day grow it into a walk in grocery store. The likes of which I have seen in town, with shelves, a till and a wide selection of all veggies that one would need. That's my plan."