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OtherThe Sussexes

Prince Harry announces Sentebale expansion to Botswana

Last evening, Prince Harry’s team won the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup. At a dinner for the exclusive guests, the Prince announced the expansion of Sentebale to Botswana. He revealed the ambitious goals of the charity for the next four years, to assist young people with HIV in Africa.

He is confident his charity will expand its number of volunteer hours to support vulnerable children to one million by 2020, a significant increase since its inception in 2006 when the hours numbered around 250,000. The Prince wants to give back to a country he’s visited a number of times over the years. Organisers hoped this polo event would raise one million dollars (£690,000).

The Prince established Sentebale in Lesotho with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 in memory of their mothers. Just last year, Sentebale celebrated a major milestone with the opening of the Mamohato Children’s Centre in Lesotho. The purpose of this facility is to provide support for children and young people with HIV by holding camps focusing on providing psycho-social support to 1,500 HIV-positive young people.

The Prince had a great deal to say during his dinner speech: “This year, we are working with established partners and government departments elsewhere across southern Africa; and I’m delighted to confirm that we will be expanding our camp programme into Botswana, a country I have been visiting regularly for almost two decades and genuinely feel I need to give as much back to as I can.”

He showed great confidence with Sentebale going forward, adding: “We are confident that, in partnership with others and by maximising our use of the new centre, we will provide 1 million hours of support to children and young people living with HIV and Aids across the region by 2020. That’s an ambitious goal, but as I’ve already mentioned, the scale of the challenge demands bold action.”

The charity’s name translates to ‘forget me not’. Forget-me-nots also have another significance to the charity and to the English Prince, as Harry recently learned.

“And incidentally I found out today that forget-me-nots were my mother’s favourite flower growing up, so that’s a very nice thing for me anyway,” he revealed to the dinner guests.