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Princes William and Harry visit orphans in Lesotho

17 June 2010 23:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Prince William and Prince Harry were given a heroesâ€™ welcome by orphaned children as they rode side by side into a remote African mountain village yesterday, APA reports quoting telegraph.co.uk website.
Wearing blankets with their names embroidered on them by boys and girls from the Semongkong Childrenâ€™s Centre in central Lesotho, their appearance was more spaghetti western than British Royalty.
After they dismounted, they were given a rapturous reception by the 84 children who live at the centre, which is funded by Prince Harryâ€™s African charity, Sentebale.
Prince Harry had invited his older brother to accompany him to Lesotho to see some of the projects which he has become so passionate about, including the orphanage which was set up in 2005 by 67-year-old Jill Kinsey, a grandmother originally from Nottingham.
Many of the children have lost parents to HIV-Aids, which has spread to around a third of the countryâ€™s two million inhabitants, and as some of the orphans performed a musical play about Aids for their Royal guests, Prince Harry cuddled two-year-old Bokang Rapostane, who was orphaned when he was three weeks old.
Harry, 25, said: â€œWe had a fantastic opportunity for me to show William what Sentebale is all about â€“ the vulnerable children. Things are going in the right direction and Iâ€™m really proud of Sentebale."
He admitted, however, that he had been on a "roller-coaster" setting up the charity, which has been criticised in the past for spending too much of its income on administration and too little on charitable work.
The princes also played football with two girlsâ€™ teams from the centre, and clashed in a bone-jarring tackle which drew winces from the watching children.
Agnes Fobo, 16, who scored the winning goal for Prince Harryâ€™s side, said: â€œThey came across in a good way â€“ I think they were sent by God to come and see us.â€
Without the orphanage, which sits on a flood plain 7,000ft up in the Maluti mountain range, many of the children would end up on the streets or working as cattle herders, who are often treated barbarically by farmers who employ them.
Prince William, 27, said: â€œThe fact that they smile so regularly, and to complete strangers, shows you how fantastic they are as people.â€ He said he would "definitely" return, to which Harry replied, in an aside, "if invited".
Asked how he was coping with his younger brother being the centre of attention, he said: â€œWhile weâ€™re here itâ€™s alright but once we get back Iâ€™m going to make sure itâ€™s thoroughly deflated.â€
Later, the princes visited the presidential palace in Maseru to take part in a workshop with HIV-positive teenagers, where they lay on the ground while the children drew outlines around their bodies.
Prince Seeiso, the co-founder of Sentebale and the younger brother of the King of Lesotho, joked: "Have you got an orange one for the carrot-top?"
The princes then had to write down their hopes and dreams, in which Harry wrote professional surfer, wildlife photographer, helicopter pilot and "Live in Africa!"
Prince William wrote only "successful pilot" and under "attributes" he wrote "happy, lucky, strong, caring". Prince Harry then defaced his brotherâ€™s paper by writing "loser".