Blitz Bureau
LONDON: Britain’s Prince Harry said he was “in shock” after quitting as a patron of Sentebale, a British charity he set up to help young people with HIV and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, following a row between trustees and the Chair of the Board, reported CNN.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, co-founded Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his mother Princess Diana nine years after she was killed in a Paris car crash. Sentebale means “forget-me-not” in the local language of Lesotho in southern Africa, said the report.
Co-founder Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, as well as the Board of Trustees, joined Harry in leaving Sentebale following a dispute with Chair Sophie Chandauka, who has taken legal action to try to retain her position. In a joint statement with his cofounder, Harry said that it was “with heavy hearts” that they had resigned from their roles “until further notice.” The trustees had acted in the best interests of the charity in asking the Chair to step down, the joint statement said. “Although we may no longer be patrons, we will always be its founders, and we will never forget what this charity is capable of achieving when it is in the right care,” it continued.
According to the CNN report, the specifics of the row within the charity are not yet clear, but in her statement, Chandauka appeared to take a swipe at the 40-year-royal for “playing the victim card.” “Everything I do at Sentebale is in pursuit of the integrity of the organisation, its mission, and the young people we serve,” she said in a statement reported by Britain’s PA Media news agency.
