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Prince Harry joins an army expedition in Lesotho

8th July 2008

Prince Harry pledged today to continue his efforts to help some of Africa's most vulnerable children.

The Prince made the comment as he began working on a project supported by his charity, Sentebale, based in Lesotho.

Prince Harry's organisation is helping to refurbish a much-needed special needs school, the only one in the African country, that caters for 43 children with profound physical and mental disabilities.

Prince Harry is a Lieutenant in the Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals and he was joined by 26 military colleagues from the regiment in helping to do tough manual jobs needed to bring the Thuso Centre in the northern town of Butha Buthe up-to-date.

The Prince, speaking in the grounds of the special needs school, said: "(at) Sentebale as long as we can keep funding (the projects) we can make a massive, massive difference."

Looking around him at his colleagues, who were working digging ditches and carrying out other manual tasks, he added: "Everything here is just so positive and fantastic. This is the only mentally handicapped school within Lesotho and once the project is finished we hope to make another in the centre and one in the south.

"The children of Lesotho, the vulnerable children of Lesotho, that's what we're working towards."

Sentebale, which means forget-me-not, was launched by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in memory of ther mothers.

The organisation helps Aids orphans and other vulnerable children in the southern African country by offering community projects, financial aid and management support.

The work helping to rebuild the centre comes at the end of an African expedition that has been undertaken by The Prince and more than 25 soldiers from the Household Cavalry during recent weeks.

The initiative has been helped by a sponsorship deal with motoring giant Land Rover which provided off-road vehicles to help with transport over the rugged African countryside.

It is normal practice for army expeditions to seek sponsorship and expeditions are frequently planned by the military to help with personal development and team building.

The trip by members of the Household Cavalry has been planned for some time, but the decision to help the project in Lesotho was suggested by The Prince who has been helping the country's most vulnerable youngsters for more than two years.

Prince Harry has a long association with Lesotho and first visited during his gap year in 2004 aged 19, when he met young Aids orphans and other vulnerable children.  He has since made a number of trips back to Africa to see first-hand how the charity is making a difference for the better.

Prince Harry has raised funds for the charity by playing in polo matches and last summer's Concert for Diana, which Princes William and Harry organised in memory of their mother, generated more than £150,000 for Sentebale, one of several charities to benefit.

The organisation supports community projects by offering them financial aid, management help and other types of support.

Initiatives it has helped include a home for physically and mentally disabled children that has benefited from nutritional advice, physiotherapy and equipment, all provided by Sentebale.

The charity also provided a boarding school for deaf children with beds and essential kitchen equipment, and built an extension.

During the morning Harry joined other soldiers from the Household Cavalry working as a labourer helping to build a disabled ramp for the school's youngsters. The prince, dressed in a t-shirt, chinos and sturdy walking shoes, waited patiently in line with his wheelbarrow behind a local workman to fill it with cement.

Later he helped another workman push a wheelbarrow-load of aggregate up a ramp into another cement mixer and used his hands to steady the wheelbarrow as its contents were tipped into the machine.

He later took the waiting media on a brief tour of the school's two buildings, outlining the work they would be doing over the next three weeks, which will save the contractor undertaking the project 360 man days.

Pointing at the new entrance and ramp being constructed, Prince Harry said: "All the kids are mentally and physically disabled. To expect them to walk up steps like these is madness."

He then moved on to the school's dining room and described how it was having its roof space insulated and other repairs made to the outside of the roof, and explained that new kitchen facilities would be installed in the block.

During a break in the refurbishment work at the disabled school, Prince Harry chatted to the press about his charity, Sentebale, and the issues affecting Lesotho.

Lesotho has an adult HIV prevalence rate of 30 per cent and estimates suggest that as many as 200,000 of the country's half a million school-aged children and young people have lost one or both parents to the disease.

The Prince acknowledged the massive problem AIDS poses in the landlocked kingdom surrounded on all sides by South Africa.

He said: “A vast quantity of the population don't accept they have AIDS - if you accept you have AIDS it's a treatable disease".

He added: "Everybody needs to accept there's a problem in Africa.  We need to get on with it and do what's necessary to help."

Giving his assessment of some of the major problems facing the African kingdom, he described how the capital, Maseru, has modern shops such as fast food outlets and supermarkets but in the rural mountain areas volunteer nurses are trying to cope with looking after the sick.

Prince Harry added that the people of Lesotho have no "access to hospital, no access to clinics - we've got a big-scale problem".

The Household Cavalry team, who have been working to refurbish the school, had already dug a large hole for a septic tank and posts for a new parameter fence stood in place around the school.

Major Tom Archer-Burton, who is leading the group of soldiers, was busy co-ordinating the work.

He said: "If you're going to put infrastructure into the centre, if you're going to put kitchens in there... the last thing you want is people coming in and pillaging the site.

"But actually, more importantly, the children there are extremely vulnerable and it's imperative we have a secure fence up and running."

The Household Cavalry team have been touring southern Africa over the past five weeks - an expedition designed to boost the leadership skills and confidence of the younger members of the group.

Prince Harry joined them for the final two weeks as they travelled through Botswana and Namibia before reaching Lesotho.

The Burnaby Blue Foundation has sponsored the soldiers' expedition and also donated £17,000 to help with the refurbishment costs of the school.

Prince Harry's charity is providing the remaining £71,000 needed to finish off the work.

Sentebale has agreed with Lesotho's ministry of education to turn the centre into the national referral, assessment and teaching centre of excellence for the north of the country and the plan is to establish a further two facilities in other parts of the country.

The Prince and his Army colleagues broke for lunch but after a short snack Harry joined in with a project aimed at teaching local youngsters about HIV.

The charity, Kick 4 Life, is being supported by Sentebale and uses football to educate and provide medical tests for the illness and break down some of the stigmas surrounding it.

Prince Harry joined in a game of "find the ball" where two lines of youngsters faced each other and one team had to guess where a tennis ball was being passed by the opposing team.

When one of the players guessed correctly and the ball was produced from behind someone's back, the winning team cheered but the idea behind the fun and games was to show that you could not tell just by looking at someone whether they had HIV or whether they had the ball concealed behind their back.

The Prince then put on a football shirt and joined 10 others for a half-hour match between two teams made up of British soldiers, the local teenagers and some members of the press.

For the early part of the game, Harry, who seemed to be playing left midfield, could not get his foot on the ball, but halfway through the match he shoulder-charged an opposing player off the ball and when the referee blew his whistle for a foul he threw his hands up in mock disgust.

But he made amends for the free kick which was dangerously close to the 18-yard box by eventually clearing the ball away.

His team went on to win 2-0, outplaying the opposition who included journalists and photographers.

The Household Cavalry team then got back to work and Prince Harry resumed work on the school.

He donned a mask to cover his nose and mouth and a pair of goggles to help remove struts holding up a plasterboard ceiling in the school's dining room which was being refurbished. He held on to a piece of wood as a colleague bashed it through with a hammer and dust flew around them.

Prince Harry will be working with his colleagues to finish the project over the next three weeks.

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