News
Prince Harry celebrates Sentebale's third birthday and urges people to support the orphans of Lesotho
1st July 2009
The people of an impoverished African kingdom ravaged by Aids will be "decimated" unless action is taken to aid their plight, Prince Harry warned tonight.
The Prince appealed for help for Lesotho where his charity Sentebale has been working to help AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children.
Prince Harry made a speech to representatives from non-governmental organisations, philanthropists and other individuals with an interest in Africa at the event, hosted at HSBC's investment banking division in London.
The event also celebrated Sentebale's third birthday.
Prince Harry said to guests: "Lesotho is such a wonderful country and is incredibly close to my heart. Beautiful as it is though, its people battle devastating problems.
"Unless we help Lesotho in its struggle to nurture and protect its children and bring them hope for the future, the Basotho – this wonderful people - will be decimated and their society destroyed.
"It is a stark thing to say, but it is the truth.
"This may sound a tall order especially for a charity so small, but unless we think big, unless we are ambitious, nothing will change."
Prince Harry set up Sentebale in 2006 with Lesotho's Prince Seeiso in a bid to help the country's many AIDS orphans.
Lesotho, a landlocked country within South Africa, has a population of around 1.8m but it has around 400,000 orphans and the third highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world with 30,000 people dying from the disease each year, according to Sentebale.
Prince Harry added: "The poverty and the HIV-AIDS pandemic continue to ravage Lesotho unabated.
"Sentebale's work and the principles that lie behind our founding vision - to transform the lives of orphans and vulnerable children - are more important, more critical than ever."
The Prince ended by saying that both he and Prince Seeiso were committed to the African country "for as long as it takes".
Prince Harry's speech also pointed towards the next phase of Sentebale's work.
For the last two years the charity has been supporting community projects that are already up and running by providing them with financial aid, management help and other types of support.
Sentebale's Chief Executive Kedge Martin outlined the next move for the organisation.
Speaking at the third anniversary celebration attended by Prince Seeiso she said: "Looking ahead we are developing a major initiative building on our local relationships and networks.
"The model we are developing surrounds the child from baby to young adult, encompassing, care, health and education.
"We will focus on key areas and combine the creation of major new programmes and facilities with the building capacity and developing resources of existing local community organisations."
Kedge added that within five years they hope to reach a significant proportion of the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho.