Prince Harry, Britain’s royal soldier and humanitarian, would like to spend more time helping children in Africa.
The 23-year-old lieutenant, who was decorated for his service in Afghanistan, was in the African kingdom of Lesotho last week to work with Sentebale — the charity he and Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso founded in the memory of Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana.
Harry spoke with reporters recently about balancing his army life with his charity work.
“I wish I could be out here more often,” he said while visiting a newly opened center for abused children. “I do the most I can to come out here and see the kids.”
Harry and Seeiso founded Sentebale — which means “forget me not” in Sesotho — to help orphans and vulnerable children in a nation of 1.8 million people where about 300,000 children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.
The brightly colored Lesotho Child Counseling Unit is just one of a number of projects in which Sentebale is involved. Others include efforts to treat and educate about HIV/AIDS.
TEMPORARY HAVEN
The Child Counseling Unit — set on a hilltop outside Maseru — provides a temporary haven for up to 40 children who have been sexually or physically abused. It was started in 2002 by a child counselor who housed children in a shipping container at her home, but had to turn many away for lack of space and money.
Sentebale stepped in and built the new thatched-roof complex for about US$190,000, with help from Standard Lesotho Bank. Sentebale is partly funded through fundraising projects and donations.
Children stay for an average of three months, as the center seeks help from qualified counselors to enable them return to their lives and, where possible, their families. Most are girls aged from 18 months to the early teens.
KNOWLEDGE
At the shelter on Wednesday, Harry — the third in line to the British throne — greeted village elders with a traditional two-handed shake, showing respect for and knowledge of the cultural ways of Lesotho.
“For us it is a wonderful relationship,” said Paul Morolong, chairman of the shelter. “If possible we would keep him here.”
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