"Secondary school fees are expensive, and I have two children in Form One. The initial year of high school incurs higher expenses than subsequent years. This year, my focus is on their tuition fees, with the cash transfers proving helpful and alleviating the burden on my husband as the breadwinner. Starting next year, I plan to invest in buying livestock and constructing a house for my children. I feel sharing a sauce with them is becoming inappropriate as time goes. It would be more convenient if they had a separate area as they grow older. Additionally, I aim to continue raising goats; presently, I have eight. As they reproduce, I intend to sell them in the future and purchase a cow."

"I aspire to build a new house as our current one is in a dilapidated condition. The iron sheet roof has corroded over time, and the mud walls have started to collapse, particularly due to recent rains. When it rains, it leaks water, making the space damp. My husband, as the breadwinner, is facing challenges in raising money to build a new house because his casual household chores cannot provide beyond the basics like food. Therefore, I have been saving through a merry-go-round club to accumulate funds for buying building materials such as iron sheets and building poles. In the coming year, I wish to have completed this exercise and am relying on the transfers to make it possible."

"Before the cash transfers end, I aim to have built a house, which is my current focus. I currently reside in a one-room house, shared with my husband and two girls. This single room also serves as a kitchen structure. As we age, I feel it would be more respectable to have a two-room house so that the girls can have their own space. I desire one that is constructed with mud walls and iron sheet roofs. However, the income from my small kiosk business and my husband's earnings from casual jobs in house construction are insufficient for this project. Therefore, I plan to channel most of the cash transfers toward realizing this dream."

"My priority is to ensure that my five children stay in school without interruptions due to a lack of fees. I am thankful for the support I have received from GiveDirectly, which has allowed me to pay for their tuition. While my son, a casual worker in house construction, contributes, his income is limited, and cannot cover all the expenses for his siblings. Two of them are in junior high school, where the expenses can be quite high. This is where I intend to direct most of the funds. I also have a desire to own livestock, but given the constraints of tuition fees, I am uncertain about my capacity to pursue that at the moment."

"Although I am a trained tailor, I haven't been able to practice my craft due to not owning a sewing machine. My aim for this year is to purchase one, enabling me to earn an income to support my son. Presently, I have three goats, and my strategy is to sell them when they reach five, allowing me to afford the sewing machine. The prospect of having a steady source of income brings me great joy and assurance. I am sincerely thankful to this organization for the assistance they have provided me."

"Before receiving my second transfer, my husband and I had discussed spending the money on purchasing a second-hand motorcycle. Immediately after I received my transfer of $450, we proceeded with our plan. We bought a second-hand bike for $400, although this bike was acquired on credit and still has an outstanding balance of $800. We hired a rider who earns us $5 a day. From this, we use $2.5 to pay off the pending arrears, and the remaining $2.5 to cover our daily needs. I work alongside my husband in producing charcoal, a job we turned to after he lost his job as a petrol station attendant. We sell a sack of charcoal for $6, which helps us provide for our 2-year-old daughter. However, this work is challenging. Sometimes we get hurt by the thorny trees, and cutting them is difficult since we do it ourselves; we cannot afford a power saw. Moreover, the work often results in back pains. Finding logs is also becoming a challenge as we have exhausted the trees on our farm. We now source them from our neighbor’s farm and share the profits with them, paying $1.5 per sack. The number of sacks we can produce depends on the logs we manage to get. This pushed us to acquire the motorcycle as an alternative source of income. Additionally, I had taken food items on credit from a shop worth $25, which I managed to clear. From the remaining $25 I spent $10 in charcoal production and $15 I bought food to sustain us for a few days. Thank you, GiveDirectly, for your support."

"The beauty of the unconditional cash transfer lies in its flexibility – it acknowledges that individuals know their needs best. Everything about the process has been smooth, and the freedom to decide how to allocate the funds has been instrumental in transforming my circumstances. Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing about the approach."

"I do not want to go back to lying to the local chief because my children were out of school. My life is now easier to run because the children can now go to school. My plan is very simple, educate my children, and build an investment. I have lost animas to sickness and weather but now I am more aware of the changes and happenings around me. I hope to get more chicken from those I have and in turn build a herd that can be sold to take care of school fees when the program gets to an end."

"I have a motorcycle which is my bread and butter, my wife has a small vegetable stall where she sells vegetables fruits and fish from. She is still at the starting stages and although I had hoped that my earnings from my Motorcycle business would contribute towards boosting her business it has note been the case. I am saving so as I can heave enough to take a shop and expand the business to her being able to have her own shop rather than the stall which needs her to load and offload it daily."

"I have started savings since being enrolled in the Givedirectly program. I plan to save to a point that I can afford to buy goats. Goats are easy animals to rear, with the periodic droughts we face its easy to graze a goat than any other animals while poultry are cash intensive due to the Newcastle disease. I plan to buy goats and breed them, increase my herd so that I can sell and use in case of need."