As the new year gets underway, Port Elizabeth photographer and owner of Hugo Studio, Leon Hugo, is preparing for yet another amazing Go2Explore adventure as he joins the Building of Hope Foundation in Mombasa, Kenya for seven weeks to build a hostel for blind, orphaned children.
Last year Hugo raised in excess of R20 000 for the Chevrolet Johan Botha Cycle for Charity 2011 event whilst touring Namibia through his Go2Explore initiative. This year, while not fundraising directly, Hugo will be donating all his time, for free, for the duration of the project.
This is not the first time that Hugo has been involved with the Building of Hope foundation, having previously assisted them in Port Elizabeth in 2008, with the building of an an Aids Hospice at Sister Ethel, and again in 2010, where he spent a month with volunteers building a training centre in Mombasa, Kenya.
“I am really looking forward to spending this time in Kenya, assisting them with recording the wonderful work they are doing for these children,” said Hugo.
Hugo will be spending the seven weeks in Kenya with over 200 volunteers from Ireland, leaving Port Elizabeth on 12 January and returning on 28 February.
“There will be four groups of volunteers coming through one after another to assist in the project and I will be staying on for the entire duration to capture everything on film,” he said.
Hugo said the volunteers, all of whom came from Ireland, were aged between 20 and 68, and would start working from as early as 5:00 am.
“This is because it gets extremely hot and humid in Mombasa, so they want to get as much done in the day, before it gets too hot to work,” he said.
Leon Hugo
