Tossing a rugby ball with Aids orphans and planting trees, Britain’s teenage Prince Harry is showing his caring side during a trip through the impoverished southern African country of Lesotho.
”It’s really good fun to learn about the people here,” he said at a photo opportunity this week. ”It’s not a place that everyone knows much about.”
Prince Charles’ younger son has made tabloid headlines in Britain for indulging in underage drinking and smoking marijuana.
One London columnist recently called him ”a national disgrace”. His father’s spokesperson, Paddy Harverson, said the columnist’s charges were ”unfounded and unfair”.
In Lesotho, a tiny mountain kingdom with one of the world’s highest HIV-infection rates, the 19-year-old prince has spoken out about the country’s difficulties.
Since arriving on February 13, Harry and his friend George Hill have dug trenches, helped build a bridge and lay the foundation of a health clinic, and visited Aids patients with a local doctor.
”They do really well with the kids, especially with the really little ones,” said Byron Williams, an American peace corps volunteer who runs the Mants’ase Children’s Home.
On Wednesday, Harry and Hill played rugby, worked in the garden and helped build a fence at the orphanage, many of whose young residents have lost parents to Aids.
Journalists were invited to accompany them in exchange for allowing them privacy for the rest of the eight-week trip.
During the casual rugby match, Harry took extra care to include a tiny eleven-year-old girl named Mafusi Maqhoane, who ran around the makeshift field in a pink dress yelling ”mphe” — ”give me” in the local Sotho language — at the prince.
Rugby is not usually played in Lesotho, but helped by Harry, the local children picked up the rules fast. Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso, the British-educated younger brother of King Letsie III, also joined in the game.
Harry, taking time off between his education at Eton and his enrollment at Sandhurst military academy, spent part of last year working on a ranch in Australia. In April, he heads to another undisclosed location in southern Africa before returning to Britain. – Sapa-AP