When Prince Harry first visited the tiny landlocked kingdom of Lesotho, a southern African nation ravaged by AIDS and HIV, it sparked an almost elemental reaction. It was 2004 and 19-year-old Harry was on a gap year searching for direction in his life before he started in the army. “In the end, the thing that had the greatest impact on me was the two months I spent working in Lesotho,” Harry says now, looking back at his first encounter with the children he met, who would play a key role in his future.
The original impetus behind that first eight-week stay in Lesotho was to follow in his mother’s footsteps. Harry’s media image was firmly fixed as the Party Prince, but in Lesotho, Diana’s youngest son found purpose. “I always wanted to go to an AIDS country to carry on my mother’s legacy as much as I can,” he said in a poignant TV documentary he made about the trip. “I don’t want to take over from her because I never will – I don’t think anyone can – but I want to try to carry it on to make her proud.”
Harry returned to Lesotho in November and there’s no question his late mother would have been proud. On that first visit, Harry had met HIV-positive orphans battling against the odds to thrive. He wanted to help, and not just by using his royal clout to raise awareness; he wanted to do something concrete, practical and lasting.
Princes Harry and Seeiso (left) show their delight at the opening of the Mamohato Children’s Centre.
Harry was able to catch up with his ‘old’ friend and pen pal Mutsu Potsane.
Together with his “dear friend” Prince Seeiso, brother to the King of Lesotho and in many ways the Prince Harry of his nation, the two royals set up the charity Sentebale. Harry calls Prince Seeiso “my brother from another mother” – and it is indeed mothers who fuel this powerful friendship. “We came up with the name Sentebale, which means ‘forget-me-not’ in Sesotho, the language of Lesotho, and the idea seemed perfect,” says Harry.
“This charity is a way in which Prince Seeiso and I can remember our mothers, who both worked with vulnerable children and people affected by AIDS. I really feel that by doing this I can follow in my mother’s footsteps and keep her legacy alive.”
Prince Seeiso’s wife Princess Mabereng Seeiso says Harry and her husband share a unique friendship. “They are both second boys and very similar personalities, very cheerful, loving, bubbly and casual. They complement each other.” When Harry visits Lesotho, he stays with the couple and the Princess says Harry’s passion to help her nation’s youth was sparked right from that first visit. “He saw the need and wanted to help,” she says. “Nothing calls him to this; he is doing it out of his heart. We appreciate his efforts.”
In 2006, Sentebale was founded to support vulnerable Lesotho children and today the charity provides thousands of children and young people affected by HIV/AIDS with vital care, education and psychological support. Programmes include providing bursaries to 432 children to go to secondary school, night schooling for 800 herd boys in rural districts, residential care for more than 1000 orphans and children living with disabilities, and in late November the two Princes unveiled their pride and joy, the Mamohato Children’s Centre.
Harry, with Mutsu Potsane, then aged six, has his mother Diana’s affinity with children.
Situated on land given to the charity by Prince Seeiso’s brother, King Letsie III, the £2.1 million centre was funded by a range of donors, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation and The Queen’s Trust. Also helping was Harry’s dad, Prince Charles, who through the Prince’s Foundation sent over an architect from the UK to work on the final stages of the project.
Harry named two buildings at the heart of the landmark centre after the women closest to him when he was growing up – his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, and his beloved nanny Olga Powell, who died in 2012. Olga looked after Princes Harry and William throughout their childhood and was a figure of stability for the brothers as their parents’ marriage broke down.
“When Olga passed away, the family donated the money that would have gone to flowers to Sentebale,” explains the charity’s chief executive Cathy Ferrier.
The centre’s dining hall takes Diana’s name and there is a tree painted on one wall with leaves featuring the names of donors. “The dining hall is the place where all the children will gather three times a day… it felt the right place to be in memory of his mother,” says Ferrier.
Prince Seeiso says for both him and Prince Harry, the charity was very much inspired by their mothers’ teachings. “We came to a point together because we had a similar upbringing, where we were led to believe that we shouldn’t look at ourselves as any different from any other kid. If we were born of privilege, we should pay back to society in some way or another.”
On a day of speeches, singing and rejoicing, Prince Harry rushed over to hug one special boy – now a teenager – Mutsu Potsane. Mutsu was four years old when Harry first met him and the two have stayed in contact over the years, exchanging letters and meeting up on Harry’s many trips. In his letters (below, right), Mutsu touchingly expresses his “love” for the Prince and it is this palpable connection with these children in need that shines through Harry’s work here.
Opening the centre, Prince Harry said, “Eleven years ago, I made my first visit to Lesotho… I couldn’t believe so many children had been robbed of their childhoods by extreme poverty and the ravages of HIV and AIDS. Behind those smiles, it was clear they desperately needed care, attention and, above all, love. Although our situations couldn’t have been more different, I felt an overwhelming connection to many of the children I met. They were far younger than me and, of course, their situation was a great deal more challenging than my own. Nonetheless, we shared a similar feeling of loss, having a loved one, in my case a parent, snatched away so suddenly. I, like them, knew there would always be a gaping hole that could never be filled.”
Perhaps here in Lesotho, with these children, Prince Harry is starting to heal that wound.
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