Roberto Westbrook Goes To Haiti

Friday November 19th, 2010

Richmond-based photographer Roberto Westbrook‘s wife just started working for the group Physicians for Peace, a nonprofit organization that sends medical volunteers to places where healthcare is needed. When they saw Roberto’s work, they decided to send him on a trip with the group to Haiti.

Aware of the gravity of Haiti’s situation—the nation is struck with poverty and dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake—Roberto expressed some trepidation before leaving. When he arrived there, Roberto did some pro-bono work photographing volunteer physical therapists as they helped amputeees learn how to walk on their new prosthetic legs.

I asked Roberto to tell me more about the environment he was in during his trip, and he described the camp set up by actor Sean Penn’s humanitarian aid group, the J/P Haitian Relief Organization.

I was surprised by how functional the tent cities are. I lived in Buenos Aires for 9 months in 2006 and it reminded me of the shanty towns that dot that city and many other cities like Rio. The Sean Penn tent city had running water, electricity and even a small “road,” if you can call it that, where people sold coal, food and small items at the edge of their tents. The people have a life in these tent cities, and over time I imagine they will become shanty towns with homes made of plywood and tin.

He also described some of the more inspiring experiences:

Photographing at the Hangar Clinic in Deschapelles (90 miles north of Port-au-Prince) was really uplifting. It felt good to photograph an event with such a positive outcome on people’s physical and mental health. I was told that amputees are looked down upon in Haiti, so most patients ask for a plastic cover to hide the metal components. I remember one young woman, the first thing she wanted to do upon receiving her leg was put on her tight jeans. There was a desire to be “normal,” and I was able to photograph the physical therapists teach the patients to walk on their new limbs. Hopefully the photos will help Physicians for Peace continue fund-raising for their work in Haiti.

The trip met some of Roberto’s expectations, confirming that the country is struggling, but also inspired him. In a reflective blog entry, he emphasized the need to continue helping, and wrote that it is ideal to “focus on giving to groups that are providing training or are performing a sustainable development function in Haiti.”

-Asad