Volunteer's award delight (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

St Albans charity volunteer winner of Community Gold Award

9:10am Thursday 3rd March 2011 in News By Manisha Mistry

A CHARITY volunteer who has spent years supporting poor villages in Africa has been crowned our latest unsung hero.

Tim Fox set up Kogelo Tours in 1997 which brings tourism to a small Kenyan village called Mundeku, supporting its poverty-stricken population.

Tim, who is also general manager of St Albans homeless charity Emmaus, has inspired others to follow in his footsteps and set up projects to support Mundeku.

Welwyn Garden City businessman Neil Kirby, who was invited by Tim on a trip to the village, returned with a wealth of ideas and is now running his own fundraising scheme to raise cash for the residents of the village.

Neil nominated Tim for the Review's Community Gold Award last month, after seeing first hand how the work through Kogelo Tours has changed lives.

Speaking about his delight at being crowned winner of the award, Tim said: “I am absolutley astounded and shocked. It's lovely to be recognised and it was the last thing on my mind.

“It's great to see the work we doing being recognised and getting out there for other people to see.

“Hopefully it will inspire other people to get involved and make a real difference.

“Having an award like this just shows what we are trying to do is for the better and hopefully others will want to be a part of it.”

The Community Gold Awards scheme is run by the Review in conjunction with St Albans solicitors Debenhams Ottaway.