How Prince Harry Honored Memory of Princess Diana on Anniversary of Her Death
He may be considered a bit of a ladies Prince all across the land, but what many do not know about Prince Harry is that he is becoming more and more of a People’s Prince every day. The Mirror reported that one day before the 19-year-anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, Prince Harry’s charity in Lesotho, Africa, named Sentebale, was hosting a Youth AIDS conference to provide education and youth voices on the disease of HIV and AIDS. Sentebale is a center that Prince Harry co-founded in memory of the late Princess Diana to carry on her legacy of HIV and AIDS charity.
The name Sentebale means “Forget Me Not.” It is a name that Prince Harry came up with his co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho for the center when it was founded in 2006.
Today, on the anniversary of her death we salute #PrincessDiana who was passionately drawn to those affected by #HIV pic.twitter.com/HiouYuY1rx
— Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (@JASLtweets) August 31, 2016
On the Sentebale website, Prince Harry said the following.
“In 2004 I was 19 and went travelling in my gap year…in the end the thing that had the greatest impact on me was the two months I spent working in Lesotho. I was lucky enough to have an amazing guide in Prince Seeiso. His knowledge and compassion for his country showed me that there could be a way of making a difference in Lesotho that would go far beyond the building projects I worked on. We came up with the name Sentebale, which means “forget-me-not” in Sesotho, the language of Lesotho, and the idea seemed perfect. This charity is a way in which Prince Seeiso and I can remember our mothers, who both worked with vulnerable children and people affected by AIDS.”
Princess Diana earned the nickname “The People’s Princess” during her short lifetime, as a result of her sincere desire to change the world through charitable service. It’s a trait that Prince Harry seems to have inherited, as he has devoted his life to doing the same.
Sentebale is just one of the many acts of charitable work he has done to honor the memory of the beloved Princess Diana, a woman he remembers and still grieves for every day. Prince Harry relates to the children there in a unique way, each of them have lost a parent. But their loss, is due to HIV.
The conference covers access to treatment and education for key populations. #youthvoices pic.twitter.com/VC7vmaLkz5
— @Sentebale (@Sentebale) August 30, 2016
As HIV was a cause his mother held dear to her heart, Prince Harry has made it a life mission to carry her work on long after her death. The day before the world was talking about the 19-year-anniversary of the beloved Princess’s death, Prince Harry’s own charity was doing work for AIDS. The work was a Youth AIDS conference to help create a platform for youth voices to be more educated on the disease and treatment options.
ABC News confirms Prince Harry has also helped the homeless, continued Princess Di’s work at a land mind charity known as Halo, established an anti-bullying award in her name, and set up a mental health charity in her name along with his brother Prince William and his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton.
The land mine charity Halo is a charity that Princess Diana worked on with The White House and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. It is work that Prince Harry continues today. And those are just a few of the things he has done to honor the memory of his late mother.
But it was youth voices that Sentabale was focusing on the day prior to the day that marked the 19-year anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. The conference was for youth that brought 12 youth AIDS workers in as speakers. They were coming to speak about how to support children that live with the realities of HIV every day.
The conference was held in partnership with the National AIDS Commission and also UNICEF. It was held at the Mamahato Children’s Centre where the memory of Princess Diana is in every corner. The dining hall there is named after Princess Diana.
@sentebale, make sure deaf young people like me access HIV education #youthvoices,#reachallchildren pic.twitter.com/3vumT1d2e6
— Ntoli Moletsane (@nmoletsane) August 30, 2016
The Mirror reported that the Mamohato Children’s Centre opened November 2015, and offers programs and camps for youth “living with HIV” or who have lost a parent to the disease. The August 30 event was an event that followed a concert and International AIDS Conference that Prince Seeiso and Prince Harry attended in July.
Sir Elton John also attended the International AIDS Conference, he had a long and beloved relationship with Princess Diana, and has been involved with many of Prince Harry’s charity work performed to honor her memory. The Mirror reported that at the conference this past July, Prince Harry said the to the crowd.
“When my mother held the hands of a man dying of AIDS in an east London hospital, no one imagined a quarter of a century later HIV positive people would live full, healthy, loving lives. We now face a new risk – the risk of complacency.”
http://www.instagram.com/p/BIH1hw2D290/?taken-by=sentebale
Allowing youth to speak freely about the challenges they face when dealing with the realities of HIV was the focus of the conference August 30. It’s not the only work Prince Harry is doing to remember the late Princess Diana.
He has worked with his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate Middleton on many charities beloved by Princess Diana. Prince William and Prince Harry are also working on a Princess Diana memorial garden at Kensington Palace according to the Huffington Post.
It’s a palace that is very special to them as they both live there now, but were also raised there by Princess Diana and have grown up there. Prince William and Prince Harry have been very vocal about how they grieve their mother still every day. They are also very aware of how beloved she is by the world, and want to establish a public garden for charity on the grounds of Kensington Palace so that the public can honor their memories of Princess Diana in their own unique ways, as they did right after her death in 1997, and continue to do today.
http://twitter.com/RoyaleVision/status/771706474372431872
Next year will be the twentieth anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, and April 2017 is the expected completion of the memorial garden according to the Independent Journal Review. It’s a project that is being held in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces charities, and will be on the grounds that Princess Diana cherished so much with her young boys, now grown Prince’s.
It is also just one of the many projects Prince Harry and Prince William work on to remember and honor their mother, The People’s Princess.
Earlier this year, Prince Harry attended Good Morning America to discuss his multiple charities he is involved with to remember Princess Diana. He told Good Morning America and ABC News,
“All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud. That’s all I ever wanted to do.”
All of the Prince’s charity work seems to coincide with Princess Diana’s passions. There is no doubt that he is certainly making his mother proud, and seems to be following right in her footsteps. You can watch that whole interview with Prince Harry right here, where in a rare moment he talks candidly about his work, and his mother.
Prince Harry also told ABC News and Good Morning America that he and his brother will never stop working to make sure “she’s never forgotten.” He also said, their work is developed to be sure they “carry on all the special gifts that she had, and that she portrayed while she was alive.”
[Photo by Dave Caulkin/AP Images]
