The Riverside couple won the 2014 Community Achievement Awards’ highest accolade, the Heather and Christopher Chong Outstanding Achiever Award, last week.

Mr Bosveld said they were humbled to have been recognised with the award.

For the past seven years the couple have helped to establish a village in the Burundi province of Cibitoke, one of the poorest regions in the tiny East African nation.

It was a project that Mr Bosveld did not seek out, but while working in Rwanda with Youth for Christ Australia he received a phone call from a person in Burundi asking if he would help in that country.

On his return to Australia, he and Lorraine established Villages of Life.

‘‘From Australia we organise the fund-raising and we employ local people there to do the work,’’ Mrs Bosveld said.

‘‘We don’t go there and build houses as such, we employ them and they do it.’’

Over the years the couple have organised numerous fund-raising events, with the annual August ball the drawcard event, raising more than $600,000 for Villages of Life. 

From this they have established five orphan family homes, a guesthouse, a 12-classroom school and an almost completed medical centre.

For more information email ted@villagesoflife.org or visit www.villagesoflife.org.

 Other 2014 Community Achievement Award recipients:

St Michaels Association Inc, of Newstead; Duncan Meerding, of North Hobart; Landfall and Landfall Farm Fresh, of Launceston; Hazell Bros Group, of Derwent Park; Xsquared Architects Pty Ltd, of Hobart; Corumbene Nursing Home, of New Norfolk; and Project U-Turn of Molesworth.