Prince Harry wants to do more
2008-07-13 14:02
Maseru - Prince Harry, Britain's royal soldier-humanitarian, would like to spend more time helping children in Africa.
The 23-year-old lieutenant, who was decorated for his service in Afghanistan, is in the impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho this 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 centre 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. Many children are forced to leave school to look after younger siblings, and are open to abuse or exploitation.
The brightly coloured Lesotho Child Counselling Unit is just one of a number of projects in which Sentebale is involved. Others include efforts to treat and educate about HIV/Aids and help children with mental or physical disabilities.
The Child Counselling Unit - set on a hilltop outside the capital, Maseru - provides a temporary haven for up to 40 children who have been sexually or physically abused. It was started in 2002 by a local child counsellor 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 $190 000, with help from Standard Lesotho Bank. Sentebale is partly funded through fundraising projects and donations.
'The biggest problem is the hidden abuse'
Since the new centre opened on July 4, the children have been sleeping in dormitories, playing with a large collection of toys and running around the shelter's spacious property which includes a merry-go-round that also acts as a water pump.
A walled courtyard inside the building features a ceramic tile with the hand prints of both Harry and Seeiso.
"It is a fantastic building, especially compared to where they were before," Harry said. "The vulnerable children of Lesotho will always be welcome here."
The red-haired royal, dressed in khaki fatigues and a warm sweater, entertained a group of children living at the centre. He pushed one delighted toddler around on a tricycle and joked with another on the steps of the courtyard.
Children stay for an average of three months, as the centre seeks help from qualified counsellors to enable them return to their lives and, where possible, their families. Most are girls aged from 18 months to early teens, said the charity's director in Lesotho, Harper Brown.
"The biggest problem is the hidden abuse," Brown said. "We don't really know the scale of the problem."
But staff psychologist Bosao Monyamane said the new centre would make a big difference in helping the children.
"It's colourful and there is a lot of activities for them. They are more at an advantage here," she said, as one little girl wrapped up against the winter cold sat grinning in the playroom while carefully pinning a diaper on a baby doll.
Harry first came to Lesotho in 2004, spending two months volunteering on local welfare projects. Landlocked Lesotho, surrounded by South Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the region.
Since then, the prince has upped his work with the army, and earlier this year was deployed in Afghanistan with his regiment, the Household Cavalry's Blue and Royals. But he said his dual commitments posed no conflict.
"In a way the army has helped join the two together," the prince said.
- AP