KEITH Rowe is an addict. Not only that - he is pushing his habit to the young people of Ryedale, getting them just as hooked as he is.

Fortunately, the habit in question is helping children in deprived communities in Africa and Eastern Europe.

"It gets under your skin, there's no doubt about it," said Keith. "It whets your appetite for more volunteer work - which is why it's so good for young people."

It is this amazing work which made judges decide to name Keith as Ryedale's Volunteer of the Year, in a competition run by the Ryedale's Child and Youth Projects in association with the Gazette & Herald.

He has enabled dozens of young Ryedale people to gain a unique and life-changing experience - seeing different parts of the world and providing much-needed help to children and young people facing problems far removed from their own.

It all began when he ran a cadet group as a teacher at Scarborough College, and the Green Howards invited him to take a group to train with them in Kenya.

"I felt that if we were going to take young people that far across the world, it would be nice if they could do some work of social worth to help the communities," said Keith.

He got in touch with several national charities, including Save the Children and Oxfam, to offer help, but, to his dismay, none of them took him up on the offer, asking only for fundraising rather than practical help.

"I had discovered one important thing," said Keith. "That there were a lot of young people willing to work for other people."

He found an orphanage in desperate need of help and took it from there, returning year after year to the area of Laikipia in Kenya, helping in a street children's home and a primary school, as well as the original orphanage.

When he retired, the Community Education Service asked him to continue the trips in collaboration with it, recruiting young people from youth groups and Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes.

His wife, Gail, has joined him on all of the trips and is an invaluable part of the organisation. "I come up with a mad project then Gail does all the work," joked Keith.

But he has grave concerns about the future of these projects.

"Whether it's because of tragic accidents which have happened in the past or because of the litigious society we live in, those at the top are very nervous and there just isn't the support available," he said.

"It would be nice, having gone through all the planning and the risk assessments, if there was someone who would just say 'if something goes wrong, I'm here'."

He can no longer take anyone under 18, as he once did, and he believes that all the "hoops and obstacles" now put before him will make it impossible to continue.

"Educators and politicians say they want young people to have broad life experiences but there isn't that support," he said.

"We have heard a lot recently about Africa and cancelling world debt, but, at the end of the day, if we're going to help these countries as best we can, we've got to get our young people involved. They are the people that are growing up in this modern world, they are the people who've got the health and strength and, in many cases, financial capacity to get out there and help, so if I can get them motivated at the beginning, then that's what I'll do."

He has been amazed at the enthusiasm of the people he has worked with. "They work together at this end to raise money to get out there and to take things to the children, and then they work hard again once they get there. They form an amazing bond and keep in touch with us and with each other."

Keith and other volunteers also have a long-term relationship with a community in Romania, which started when he and a group of people from his home of Pickering worked to help the orphanages after the collapse of the Communist regime.

"Even though that has improved, they still struggle in the schools and wider community," said Keith.

He is taking seven young people to Romania for three weeks to run a fun summer school for children there.

And then, of course, there is a trip planned in September - and, no doubt, he will soon be planning for next year's project.

Yes, there's no doubt Keith is hooked. And what a contribution his obsession makes. The long-term benefits of Keith's work - both in terms of the young people who go on the trips and the communities they work with at the other end - are incalculable. The longer he can continue, the better for everyone, it is only hoped that red tape does not force him to go cold turkey - that really would be a disaster.

Updated: 15:02 Wednesday, July 27, 2005