At the end of October 1981 Karlheinz Böhm travelled to Ethiopia for the first time and visited a refugee camp with about 1,500 semi-nomads of the Hauiwa tribe in Babile / Eastern Ethiopia. It was with them that he launched the first project in the approx. 30 km distant Erer Valley, where the refugees could settle in four new villages.

Today Menschen für Menschen runs a wide range of long-term projects in seven regions of Ethiopia . These include agricultural and agro-ecological projects, the construction of wells, girls’ homes and schools, the improvement of the medical care system and organisation of training programmes. The latter and educational programmes for the betterment of women in society are becoming increasingly intensive. 700 workers (including six Europeans) are supervising work for more than 3 million people.

29 employees work the three organisational offices in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Besides the responsible task of administrating donations, the offices plan and coordinate thee information and public relations work. Over 400 volunteers additionally support the activities of Menschen für Menschen. Only in this way is it possible to achieve a maximum of aid for the Ethiopian people with extremely low expenses for administration and public relations.

Menschen für Menschen fundamentally pays neither for newspaper advertisements nor TV and radio promotions. Since 1981 the promotional material has been prepared free of charge by well-know photographers and agencies and the media.