ActionAid's work ActionAid began working in Ethiopia in 1988 and now works with 350,000 people. This work involves lobbying government and direct work with poor and marginalised people. I visited a project in Wadla where ActionAid is working through an organisation called ORDA. Wadla is really isolated, there's no post, phones, electricity or public transport, even in the main town called Kone. People are mostly farmers but they have a hard time because they don't have much land and the frost sometimes destroys the crops. Most people can't afford fertiliser, and they can't use manure either, because they dry it and burn it as fuel! ORDA is helping train people in other ways to make a living, such as carpentry, pottery or weaving. They are also helping people to plant trees and reduce soil erosion to improve the environment. Farmers are being trained to grow new crops that are better suited to the conditions.