Princess Diana Would be Exceptionally Proud of Prince Harry
Prince Harry has said his biggest goal is to make his mother "incredibly proud." This week, he took a major step to do just that - and continue Princess Diana's fight to end HIV and AIDS.
"He wants to expand his own knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in the fight against the virus around the world," Kensington Palace said in a statement. "This will see him tackling topics including testing, treatment and prevention as well as anti-stigma efforts that were famously championed by his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales."
The prince has a "decade of experience in supporting young people with HIV in Lesotho," the statement continued. (Along with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, Prince Harry started charity Sentebale in 2006 to help vulnerable children, especially those living with HIV/AIDS.)
Now, he will embark on a new series of events and engagements that aim to spread awareness and bring this issue to the forefront "to help his generation understand that the battle against the disease has not yet been won and still needs fighting."
To kick off, Prince Harry hosted an awareness and fundraising concert for Sentebale at Kensington Palace on June 28. The British band Coldplay performed, as did singer Joss Stone, the Basotho Youth Choir and others. Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were also in the audience.
"What we know is that HIV is a virus that thrives off silence and feeds on stigma," Harry told the crowd. "Every single one of us has a responsibility to educate ourselves. To do what we can to speak out and stamp out the silence, ignorance and fear. We must follow the example of Lesotho and meet one of the great challenges of our generation with optimism, energy and openness."
During the show, his friend and Sentebale co-founder Prince Seeiso also gave a touching tribute to the British royal. "You came to Lesotho as a young man and today you stand tall and proud and are walking among the giants," he said to Harry. "You are making a difference. That is a testimony to the mother that we so love, that is Princess Diana. You in her footsteps have gone beyond the call of duty and gone to those dark corners and reached out your hand to the most vulnerable children of Africa and in particular, Lesotho."
Next month, Harry plans to meet with doctors and nurses in South London, home to one of the highest concentrations of HIV-positive people in Europe. He'll also visit a sexual-health service that encourages regular testing for HIV and outreach to the partners of newly diagnosed patients, according to the statement. Then, he will meet other leaders and deliver a speech to delegates at the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.
"When she died, there was a gaping hole, not just for us but also for a huge amount of people across the world," he recently told People of his mother. "If I can try and fill a very small part of that, then job done. I will have to, in a good way, spend the rest of my life trying to fill that void as much as possible. And so will William."
