"I am a single mother of one and as such I faced a lot of challenges. Life is hard for me since I am left on my own to fend for my family. The father of my kid abandoned me when I became pregnant, apparently, he had a wife and he had never told me. It shook me to the core and gave me a wake-up call to work harder. I have many siblings and I felt like I was giving my parents a huge burden so I went to Nairobi to be a maid, I was being paid $50 a month. I made savings up to $300 which I used to purchase half an acre and put up a makeshift house. It has been a huge struggle, I still have a debt of $100 which has been hard to raise, the whole cost of the land was $400. The neighbour who sold me the land has been in my neck asking for the balance. I have neither had peace of mind nor sleep. He has on many occasions threatened to kick me out of the land until I cleared the remaining balance. I can now breathe a sigh of relief with the GiveDirectly transfers in the offing."

"We are a family of 4, every day is a struggle to make ends meet. It is not easy to fend for the family, we are inadequate in terms of food, and we are forced to buy the lack of funds notwithstanding. This way of life is unbearable, farming here is hard because of the vagaries of weather mostly unreliable rainfall, we depend on rain-fed agriculture yet we have had three failed rainy seasons and subsequently, we were not able to plant any food crops, it has caused us the kind of food insecurity that we are grappling at the moment."

"Two years now down the line since my husband passed away, life has never been fair to me. This is because as a mother, I am required to provide for my family of 8. This has not been easy since my small business of selling foodstuffs has not thrived well. In a month, I earn utmost $100. Although this can be a good amount, it can not fully cater to our needs because of the school fees burden. This amount is just a quarter of what we used to earn with my husband when we combined efforts. The headache is when I desperately watch my 4 school-going children at home due to lack of fees. As a mother, this has eaten up my mind and devoured my hope in life. The struggle to make ends meet to avoid the shame of my children dropping out of school has pushed me to a very tough end. Therefore, financial instability stands out as my biggest challenge."

"There are many challenges I'm facing in my life at the moment. The most pressing challenge is the lack of employment. My family and I were chased by bandits from our ancestral home 10 years ago and since then settling here has become a big challenge. I depend on menial work to provide for my family. Recently, I have found less work because of prolonged drought which has affected my family negatively. Most of the time I'm forced to sell my few goats to be able to provide for my family which posses a great challenge since I have only few goats."

"In 2021 I got my son Levis and in 2022 December I had to move to my husband's home as a second wife. Since then my life has not been the same since I had a place of my own. However, there are many challenges such as a lack of water because the river is far. I'm forced to purchase water at about $20 for six 20-liter Jerricans. This makes life very difficult since it's very expensive to purchase and transport water."

"I have been suffering from pressure and diabetes for five years now. This has really affected my health such that I cannot work anymore and depend on my son for survival. I have spent a lot of money for my medication and am now broke with no money even to buy food. That is the challenge I am passing through."

"My wife and I do casual jobs to earn a living, it is unreliable and seasonal. We earn an average of $12 a week which is only enough to buy food hence none is left for savings or paying school fees. This forces us to borrow loans from microfinance to get school fees and offsetting it has been a challenge. If we had a stable source of income we could be in a position to cater to all the basic needs of our family without straining."

"Living in a semi-arid area is the biggest challenge due to persistent drought. For the past three years, there has been inconsistent rainfall hence no food is produced from our farms. We rely on purchasing foodstuff and with the rise in the cost of living, making ends meet is hard. I do a motorcycle business that earns me an average of $3 which is not enough to cater to all the needs up to school fees of my five children."

"I have a son at the University of Nairobi. It's difficult paying his fees and supporting his education. We also support our grandchild who's in secondary. We need at least $600 to support their education for a year. This has led us to sell most of our livestock. It has drained our only source of livelihood. Education is very expensive and hard to sustain."

"Paying school fees is a big challenge for us. We'd like to educate all our children. Currently, two are in secondary school and the other three are still at the primary level. It's difficult for us raising the money to pay for their education. As of now, we have $400 fee areas. This must be paid in the next month for our children to return for the next term. This is very stressful for us. We depend on casual jobs such as weeding, and harvesting amongst others. One is paid $2.50 per day. The amount is too little to pay sschool fees."