Famine is once again stalking Ethiopia with 7.5 million Ethiopians currently food insecure. The country's extremes are getting worse as the effects of climate change begin to be felt.

Kimiya Ahmed, 35, a widow with four children, lives in a remote village in a drought-prone area. "When I cannot feed my family I feel that I am helpless because I am the only breadwinner," she says. "So when we suffer food shortages I go to my relatives for support." But often Kimiya’s relatives have no spare food either.

ActionAid provided the people in Kimiya's area with emergency seeds and tools, enabling them to re-establish crops lost in the last drought. It is a really important step. It stops a family going hungry, it allows them to become self-sufficient and it restores their faith in their ability to provide for themselves.

Now, ActionAid is looking ahead and working to introduce irrigation schemes using simple low cost technologies, which help people produce enough food to see them through the hard times.

"I think the irrigation system will improve our livelihoods because we will have access to water, which will help us to grow our crops,” says Kimiya.

Now, Kimiya and her children will no longer have to rely on hand outs when the drought comes again.

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