The project was structured in a way to first introduce final year Geography students at the University of Hertfordshire to the country of Ethiopia and the recent political history of Ethiopia. It then introduces the effects of the 1984-5 famine. For most students that are not old enough to remember the famine this creates empathy for the need for emergency food aid. It then asks students to reflect on the different socio-economic, political and environmental causes of this famine before examining the effectiveness of different governmental and NGO responses to this famine. Students are asked to make a judgement about the success of the distribution of aid, assisted by current first hand accounts of life in Ethiopia, before reflecting on the lessons learned from this famine and the international development aid legacy. Knowledge and understanding is then tested a week later in a mock television interview assessment, an example of which is given. During this week students are expected to develop their knowledge and understanding further by doing additional reading around the questions raised.