Prince Harry's charity Sentebale to host music concert in Kensington Palace Gardens with Coldplay on 28 June

Sentebale will host a music concert headlined by Coldplay in the public gardens of Kensington Palace on Tuesday 28 June. The concert, in partnership with The Handa Foundation, will raise funds and awareness of the challenges faced by adolescents living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

Joining the British rock band, Coldplay, will be British singer songwriter Laura Mvula, the African-Norwegian singing and songwriting duo Nico and Vinz, and spoken word artist and newly appointed Sentebale Ambassador, George Mpanga, known as George the Poet, along with other well-known faces to be announced soon. Artists will perform to an audience of 3,000 people against the backdrop of Kensington Palace. Tickets for the show will go on sale at 9am on Friday 27th May. To find out more about the Sentebale concert, including tickets visit: www.sentebale.org

The money raised from the event will go towards Sentebale’s monthly Saturday clubs, caregiver days and residential week-long camps at the newly opened ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre, delivering psychosocial support to children living with HIV in Lesotho, and later this year in Botswana.

Coldplay said; “We're delighted to join Prince Harry for this very special concert and to support Sentebale's incredible work with adolescents affected by HIV in Lesotho and Botswana.”

Over the past 20 years, progress has been made to reduce the number of new HIV infections globally and ensure people living with HIV access treatment. However stigma, discrimination and lack of education surrounding HIV/AIDS, means young people in Africa are increasingly dying when HIV-related deaths are decreasing for all other age groups. HIV is the number one cause of death in 10 to 19 year olds in Africa; it will only get worse unless we act now.

Founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso in 2006, Sentebale delivers psychosocial support to adolescents living with HIV, as well as providing care and education to orphans, children living with disabilities and young shepherds, know as ‘herd boys’, whose cultural obligation of tending livestock prevents them accessing education.

Cathy Ferrier, CEO of Sentebale said; “UNAIDS estimates that only 30% of adolescents believed to be living with HIV in Lesotho are accessing medication. HIV and AIDS, no longer needs to be a death sentence, but the problem will not go away unless we act now. Over the course of the next decade, it is our aim to change the tide of this epidemic.

“At Sentebale, we are ever more committed to play our part and use all our resources to help and support many more children living with HIV. The concert is about bringing people together who can make a difference. I look forward to seeing you on the 28th June.”

If children with HIV are educated about the virus, they not only learn about their condition but also can educate their peers about the disease, enlightening a generation and leading the way to ending the AIDS epidemic.

We are enormously grateful to the The Handa Foundation, Quintessentially Foundation and Huntswood for kindly sponsoring this event.

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Notes to Editors

Sentebale www.sentebale.org

Sentebale is a charity co-founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho – a country bordered by South Africa. Prince Harry visited Lesotho in 2004 and was struck by the devastating effect the HIV/AIDS epidemic was having on the nation and particularly its children. Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso founded Sentebale, meaning ‘forget me not’in Sesotho in 2006 – a charity aiming to rewrite the future for the impoverished population of Lesotho, providing the thousands of children and young people affected by HIV/AIDS with vital access to accommodation, care, education and critically psychosocial support.

The ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre

On the 26 November 2015, Sentebale opened the ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre – the first purpose-built facility of its kind in southern Africa providing vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS access to the best care and support available – it is a place of hope and opportunity for a better future.

The money and awareness raised from the Sentebale Concert will support Sentebale’s plans in providing psychosocial support to many more children coming to terms with living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in the coming years. The centre is the embodiment of that scale up, allowing the charity to increase the number of children accessing the intensive weeklong residential camps from 400 to 1,500 each year. Sentebale is hopeful that the Mamohato Children’s Centre will become a centre of excellence for the region, which will allow us to share this valuable model and our experience with partners in other and later this year in Botswana.