Sentebale is the first charity Prince Harry ever founded. He was only 21 years old when he and Prince Seeiso started it, and in nearly 20 years, Sentebale has done a lot of great work in Lesotho. It was started as a way to support children born with HIV. Over the years, Sentebale’s focus has expanded to more general support for the children of Lesotho, plus working on issues that face Lesotho across the board. Harry just visited Lesotho for the first time in like four or five years (the pandemic, remember) and it looks like he’s decided that Sentebale needs to adapt even more. As such, he’s bringing in some new people. This, of course, is being reported by Richard Eden at the Daily Mail as some kind of “people are always quitting on the Sussexes!”
Prince Harry was in ebullient form at an art gallery party in New York last week to celebrate the launch of a fundraising exhibition for his African children’s charity Sentebale. Behind the scenes, there have, I hear, been major changes going on at the organisation he co-founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006.
This week, Richard Miller quit as chief executive of Sentabale after five years in the role. His departure follows that of Baroness Chalker, the overseas development minister, who stepped down as a director last month.
It was the latest blow for the Duke of Sussex’s organisation, which lost advertising king Johnny Hornby last year. He stood down after 11 years as a trustee, five of which he spent as chairman. Last month, The Mail on Sunday disclosed that Andrew Tucker, whom Harry affectionately calls ‘Tucks’, had stepped down from his senior position at Sentebale after almost a decade.
In another sign of Harry and his wife, Meghan, cutting links with Britain, Miller will be the last London-based chief executive of Sentebale, which means ‘forget me not’ in Sesotho. The charity says Miller, 62, will be replaced by an interim executive director, Carmel Gaillard. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, she has been asked to deliver a ‘strategic transformation’ of the charity.
It has evolved from supporting children and young people affected by HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana to addressing broader issues of ‘youth health, wealth inequity and climate resilience’.
‘This shift reflects our continued commitment to being guided by voices from within the region we serve,’ say Princes Harry and Seeiso in a joint statement. ‘We sincerely thank Richard for his pivotal role in steering our organisation toward this important evolution.’
Miller says: ‘It is the logical next step for Sentebale, and the time is right for this shift to local leadership. Carmel is an incredible asset to position Sentebale further as a leader in the region.’
What it sounds like is that Harry is really withdrawing as much as he can from the UK, and he no longer wants so many British folks involved with Sentebale. If the switch to Carmel Gaillard is any indication, Harry probably wants executives and board members who are actually from Lesotho or South Africa or the broader region. My guess is that this is all part of a shift where Sentebale will not even have an office in England – perhaps it will be registered as a charity in the US. Anyway, the real story is the evolution of a small, local charity in Lesotho growing into an internationally-recognized charity with a much broader agenda.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red, Instagram.
-
- Prince Harry departs The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Tuesday 28 March, 2023. He is part of a group suing the Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) in the High Court over phone hacking allegations.,Image: 765696131, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
-
- Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex departs The Rolls Building – Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Wednesday 7 June, 2023 as part of the Mirror Group newspapers (MGN) phone hacking trial.,Image: 782000612, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
Nonprofits should have leadership from the communities they serve. This is a good thing. Also, of course Harry is further distancing himself from the UK. When Charles dies (and I keep thinking that is going to be sooner than we may expect), William will do what he can to make Harry miserable. Harry is supposed to give notice for travel, etc. I’m guessing when/if we have King William, Harry will rarely, if ever, be in England.
Yes, this is a very sensible take. The BM will never be truthful or sensible.
I didn’t read the snippet because – Maureen. He’s always going to lie.
I’ve also decided to scroll on past the hit piece excerpts. I don’t need the unpleasantness. It really gets to me, like – even though I know it’s bull 💩, I have a visceral reaction in my tummy from anger at the malice. Anything from the DB by Tom Sykes or the Fail by Maureen Eden, I do like Dionne Warwick and WALK (scroll) ON BY.🎶🎶🎶🎶
Ditto. I rarely read the excerpts…I let Kaiser take one for the team. Especially Maureen who is always so toxic and grasping. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
When NGOs change or expand their mission a lot of execs and board members leave because they new vision is outside of their area of expertise or interest. Pretty standard stuff happening here.
Huevo can’t do a thing to harry and Meghan. He is mostly very frustrated
I was referring to Harry giving 28 days notice for travel approval for security. I do believe Huevo could deny that and I can see him doing so. Or, Harry really not wanting him to know his travel plans, particularly if they should include Meghan or the children.
Actually he is incandescent with rage over anything Harry accomplishes. So Harry is making changes and bringing in new people and the gutter press goes wild with negative information. This is how the gutter press operates. I think Harry knows what he is doing because he actually does the work and knows what to do while big brother can only fume on the sidelines and tries to do some photo ops to make himself feel better.
I think overall huevo will bring down the monarchy by his laziness and spitefulness.
Yep, this is Harry doing an “organizational ringbarking” to prevent interference from the palaces with his personal charity organization after his father pops his horseshoes. To keep any current/future courtiers from meddling or otherwise preventing him from working with agents of his own charity. If the charity’s agents are not based in the UK, then the palaces can’t hold travel/security hostage to keep Harry from working with them and meeting with them in person. I believe he already did this with Invictus, when KP was caterwauling about “revolving door of staff” around that charity a few years back. It was around the same time the tabs were starting up those stories implying that Invictus was dodgy because “Harry didn’t get permission from William” for starting it. William isn’t the king and Harry doesn’t need his bother’s permission to start any charities. (yes I just noticed that’s a typo and I’m leaving it in because my god the emotional accuracy)
The current nonsense from Eden tho…
Richard Eden: “people are always quitting on the Sussexes!”
I’m sorry, the mouthpiece from just outside Kensington Palace’s revolving door of courtiers to Tory govt positions says what now? Go sit down and drink your hot mug of STFU, “Maureen”.
Agreed. One model of NPOs is charity, where the leadership and funding is highly dependent on sources outside of the community the NPO / NGO serves, and is often not sustainable once the organization stops being the new shiny object. The other model is empowerment where outside sources might give seed money or leadership but respectfully turn over and entrust the organization to the people they serve understanding that they are just as smart, just as capable, just as wise, and that “pity” only puts you back at square one when outside funders lose interest. This model is far more sustainable longterm, which is far healthier for the communities served as the mission and health should become an integrated part of the community rather than an unstable source of on and off help. World Central Kitchen does an exceptional job with this – coming into the most difficult of situations and giving work to community members, paying for local food chain supply, finding and sometimes restoring exisiting food providers and getting them back up and running, finding local leadership, etc. This is the opposite of failure – I would even take it as far to say that when leadership ALWAYS stays out of the country, it’s its own kind of colonization, and often just as harmful. If you want a good read, “When Helping Hurts” is terrific.
Sounds as if most had there a while and were older people. Maybe some wished to retire or cut back on work. Sounds like the usual media way of making much of nothing.
Key London-base Sentebale execs have, of course, been aware for a considerable period of time that there’s to be shift. Eden is, as ever, a joke.
From what I just read, these folks were in their positions for quite a long time so it makes sense that they would be moving on plus the shift in direction means that people with new visions are needed.
I don’t know if Harry is making a conscious decision to cut all ties with the UK but given the current king’s health and the situation with his brother, it’s a wise decision.
Someone up thread said Charles is likely going to pass much sooner than a lot of us are expecting and I agree with that. Harry’s been working on distancing himself from the UK for awhile, but he’s likely seeing some writing on the wall and pushing things up.
I agree, I think this is his last Christmas..
He’s got 19 more days to make me a prophet. We’ll see!
(When he first announced the cancer diagnosis I said he’d be dead within the year.)
There’s a whole explanation on the website third sector that came out a day before Eden’s piece. They’re moving the entire operation to Southern Africa so they can be closer to people they serve. So obviously the London-based would step down. In the interim Carmel Gaillard who already works with Sentable and lives in South Africa is going to be the Exective Director. It’s still going to registered as a charity in the UK.
Here’s the official announcement about the move to Southern Africa.
https://sentebale.org/sentebale-introduces-the-role-of-executive-director-and-strategically-shifts-senior-leadership-to-southern-africa/
Thank you!
Also to Kaiser’s point, the organization’s profile is growing and Harry started this organization when he was 19. I love this for Sentebale!
Sounds like a strategic and practical move for the charity.. but Eden, who is extremely biased and nasty would never report fairly on anything involving the Sussex’s. It truly is criminal what the rota has been allowed to get away with. Eden should be more concerned with his dying king and the unprepared heir that the people pay a fortune to support and get little in return.
Eden also wrote an article how Royal Foundation of W and K quit. They’ve lost how many people now. The article mentioned here is to distract once again from W and K staff leaving.
Yup, no other reason a 62-year-old man would resign his job of 10 years. Nope, cannot think of anything besides it’s so hard to work for Harry. Not for nothing, didn’t someone resign from William’s foundation yesterday?? Someone who is not retirement age?
“In another sign of Harry and his wife, Meghan, cutting links with Britain.”
The above says it all…this is what they really fear. They are spinning it as something else but what they see is Harry cutting ties where possible with Britain.
Since RR live under a rock, they don’t get that people or brought in to implement specific phases or goals. When that is accomplished, they may be replaced by someone else to specifically implement another phase. BTW, I think the chair of the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales has resigned. I don’t know the reason, but obviously after a short tenure. There is a difference between strategic hiring and being unable to keep people on board. Direction set for Sentebale looks pretty productive and exciting. It is growing and moving forward.
Maureen *will work for kibbles* Eden has no idea about anything in real life, and it shows.
It’s a very welcome, positive and logical development that the leadership team of Sentebale will now be based in South Africa, and from the sound of it, this has been planned for quite some time.
The charity seems to be evolving away from that White Savior type of organisations that often have no real idea what is going on, and what might be needed from a help organisation in order to be successful.
But it’s good to see how Eden lets his anti-Sussex, racist, coloniser point of view and absolute lack of critical thinking skills cloud his reporting.