Richard Westoby lived in South Africa in early 2008 and during this personally transformative time was inspired by its landscape, open skies, and wildlife, but more importantly by the people he met. In Africa Richard had the opportunity to further develop and discover two important facets to himself: his love of photography (using a Nikon D80 with multiple lenses) and his passion for philanthropic work.
The inner photographer in Richard was brought together in his first major exhibition, hosted in 2009. This show was entitled "I Dream of Africa," as this is what Richard finds himself doing far more frequently than he would care to admit. The photographs for this exhibtion were taken during Richard's travels of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia.
While in Cape Town Richard also had the opportunity to work very closely with Positive Heroes and has raised much needed funds through numerous events - the most recent being the "I Dream of Africa" exhibition. Positive Heroes is a not for profit organisation that aims to reduce the stigma associated with HIV within South Africa by using role models that are HIV+ to highlight that HIV is a manageable disease and to provide education on HIV prevention. For more information see www.positiveheroes.org.za
Recently Richard has become involved with another charity, Enabling Africa, which is a not-for-profit group which recognises that poverty, disease, lack of education and dis-empowerment all go hand in hand. It aims to mentor new businesses by providing owners with support, skills development, and idea generation. Once client businesses are self-sustaining, it asks the businesses to adhere to strict guidelines with regards to healthcare for employees and education for their families, and to set aside a proportion of their profits to invest in other new businesses. For more information see www.enablingafrica.org
To this day, Richard remains inspired by his friends and his months in Africa and finds that a lot of his time is now spent dreaming of becoming a full time photographer - so watch this space for the next exhibition.
