Yesterday, Prince Harry traveled to Clarence House to meet his father for tea. It was the first time they saw each other face-to-face in 19 months. What’s fascinating about the meeting is that it was scheduled around Harry’s engagements. In the early afternoon, Harry stopped by the Imperial College London’s Centre for Blast Injuries, a cause very much associated with Invictus, wounded warriors and Harry’s work with the HALO Trust. By Wednesday evening, Harry was in a suit and tie for the inaugural “Invictus Horizons” reception at The Gherkin. Harry was actually late to the evening event, tied up in traffic (because of the tube strike). And possibly because he met with his father for longer than expected. Anyway, it was a busy day for Good King Harry, so busy that another announcement sort of got lost. Harry announced that Archewell was providing $500K in donations to Save the Children, WHO and the Centre for Blast Injury Studies.
Prince Harry’s foundation is to donate $500,000 to projects including the World Health Organisation to help develop prosthetics and provide other support for children from Gaza and Ukraine, his office said on Wednesday. The announcement came on the third day of the prince’s visit to Britain, where he visited the Centre for Injury Studies (CIS), part of Imperial College London, to learn more about its work, especially its focus on injuries suffered by children and those sustained in natural disasters.
“No single organization can solve this alone,” he said in a statement. “Gaza now has the highest density of child amputees in the world and in history. It takes partnerships across government, science, medicine, humanitarian response and advocacy to ensure children survive and can recover after blast injuries.”
The three grants announced by Harry and his wife Meghan’s Archewell Foundation include $200,000 to the World Health Organization to support medical evacuations from Gaza to Jordan, and $150,000 to the Save the Children charity to provide ongoing humanitarian support in Gaza.
The third grant of $150,000 was to the Centre of Blast Injury Studies, part of CIS, to help its efforts to develop prostheses that can support injured children, particularly those injured from the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.He was joined on Wednesday by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for a tour of the CIS, where he met with research teams working on a number of world-leading projects.
“I’m really pleased about what he’s doing, especially for the children of Gaza,” Ghebreyesus said. “It’s not the money, it’s also the passion and commitment I think I see.”
Showing him round was double leg amputee Dave Henson, a CIS ambassador, who has known Harry for more than a decade and was the first captain of the British Invictus team in 2014.
“It’s been hugely important for raising the profile of the centre,” Henson, who lost his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2011, said of Harry’s involvement.
The Sussexes also included more information, including Harry’s full remarks at Imperial College London, on their Sussex.com site – go here to read. I’m also fascinated by the advancements in prosthetic technology, same as Harry. That’s part of the reason why he was invited to Ukraine earlier this year as well, to visit the Superhumans Center, which is all about cutting-edge rehabilitation, amputee treatment and prosthetic development. On a more superficial note, it’s just amazing that Harry has sprinkled $2 million in donations to worthy charities and NGOs in recent days, after the British media has spent years trying to convince everyone that the Sussexes are broke.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
