Action Ethiopia – About Us
What makes us different: We reach out to some of the most remote communities in Ethiopia, where international aid doesn’t stretch. We don’t supply endless handouts- we assist by stimulating sustainable livelihoods.
Vision: To see stable and empowered communities living in a stable and productive environment.
Aim: The protection and enhancement of the environment through sustainable practices that have a lasting effect on people’s lives.
As it stands, large swathes of Ethiopia face a perilous future. The rural population is increasing at a staggering rate and it is predicted that the population will have doubled by 2025.
Many local people understand what is happening and know that they may face a desolate future.
Problems such as soil erosion, deforestation, over grazing, disease and droughts mean many of the communities face food insecurity.
This is deeply worrying for families with children to feed.
Our Mission:
- Enable farmers to produce enough food through training and improved agricultural technology and practices.
- Develop sustainable livelihoods such as production of honey, fuel-saving stoves and community-based tourism.
- Work with forest groups to form cooperatives as legal entities to develop and protect the natural forest.
- Increase access to clean safe water through well construction, improving sanitation and developing micro irrigation systems.
- Initiate women cooperatives, to provide access to micro credit and other services that develop enterprise.
Our UK Staff & Trustees
Piers Langdon
CEO
Piers has been the CEO of SUNARMA/Action Ethiopia since 2002. He has lived and worked in Ethiopia and also has business experience in other developing countries. He is a livestock and arable farmer in the UK. He is trustee of a UK youth charity and helps on the leadership team of his local church.Yordanos Teferi BEng
Yordanos Teferi BEng, BSc (Hons) MIET hails from Arbaminch, Ethiopia. With a diverse professional background, Yordanos has garnered experience in teaching mathematics, governmental public relations, and international athletics representation. Upon relocating to the UK, Yordanos transitioned into roles such as Operations Business Analyst at Axminster Power Tools, and later served as an Associate Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, where mathematics and statistics were taught with dedication. Presently, settled within the operations department at Numatic International, Yordanos continues to contribute expertise to the organization’s systems
Chris Birchall
Trustee
After studying geology and geography and obtaining a post-graduate qualification in soil science Chris worked for 10 years in the 1970’s as a land use specialist in Africa and Central America for a variety of national and international organisations and private companies.Following assignments in Belize, Nigeria and Somalia he worked for a year as a member of a multi-disciplinary team in Ethiopia, undertaking an agricultural survey of the Southern Rift Valley, followed by three years on a land use project with the United Nations in Sierra Leone.
A career change saw Chris qualify as a public sector accountant and pursue a 25-year finance career in social housing, culminating in the post of Finance Director of a medium-sized registered social landlord. Chris has held numerous unpaid voluntary sector positions and as well as being a trustee of Action Ethiopia he is also on the committee of the Migration Foundation, a £14m fund used to help refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
Chris is retired and, apart from his voluntary work, enjoys overseas travel, walking and tending his allotment.
Peter von Lany
Trustee
Peter is a Chartered Engineer with a postgraduate degree in management science. He works for an international firm of engineers, environmental scientists and planners and has been involved in a wide range of projects to improve water resources planning and flood risk management in different countries in Africa, South and Central America, South East Asia and Europe. This work has included two projects in Ethiopia to help develop strategic water and land resource development plans for the Awash River Basin (1988 – 1989) and the Rift Valley Lakes Basin (1992 and 2007 – 2008). Peter has a keen interest in helping develop well integrated sustainable solutions to improve water, food and energy security, whilst ensuring good environmental stewardship, to aid social and economic development. He is married, with one son, and lives near Exeter in Devon.
Mark Roberts
Mark is a retired corporate lawyer. He qualified as a solicitor in 1978 and started work in the City with Norton Rose. He then moved into industry and had various roles in the UK and overseas, including Hong Kong and New York before retiring as the General Counsel of JP Morgan Assets Management in 2016.
