Prince Burnishes Image In Africa

Prince Harry Helping AIDS Victims in Lesotho

(CBS)  Call him Harry the Good.

Britain’s younger prince, Harry, has been doing good works in the tiny sub-African kingdom of Lesotho, CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports.

The 19-year-old, whose late mother Diana, Princess of Wales, was a champion of AIDS victims, is hoping to leave a legacy behind him as he works in the impoverished southern African country.

Fun-loving Harry showed his sensitive side Tuesday as he carried out his duties at an orphanage and spoke of how the kingdom was in need of help. Some of the youngsters at the Mants’ase Children’s Home, near Mohale’s Hoek, have lost both their parents to AIDS in a country where 40 percent of the population is believed to be infected with HIV or AIDS.

Harry was helped by 4-year-old orphan Mutsu Potsane as they planted a peach tree which will eventually provide shade for children at the small dwelling.

Tiny Mutsu held the prince’s hand as they approached the flower bed, watched by a large media pack who gathered there for the photo opportunity. The orphan looked on as Harry bent down to plant the sapling, before crouching down himself to help the prince scoop up handfuls of dirt to cover the roots. As Harry stamped on the ground to secure the tree, Mutsu followed his lead and did the same.

A relaxed-looking Harry was dressed in a fawn Nike England rugby T-shirt and grey combat trousers, with his hair cut extremely short. He described his time in the country so far as "fantastic" and "really good fun." Asked what he intended to achieve by his stay, he replied: "Recognition for Lesotho as a country that needs help. They haven’t got enough help yet."

Southern Africa is suffering its worst drought in more than a decade. Millions are going hungry and aid workers expect near total crop failure in Lesotho. The region also has the highest HIV prevalence in the world.

The prince, who spent part of last year working on a ranch in Australia, arrived in Lesotho on Feb. 13 for a two-month visit, part of his year off from schooling. He has been touring the country and visiting projects that help people in need, including a rural orphanage and health clinic, according to a statement released by Clarence House, the London home of Princes Charles, Harry and William. Harry has also traveled with a local doctor on visits to AIDS patients, seeing firsthand the effects of the pandemic estimated to have infected 31 percent of Lesotho’s 2 million people.

But Harry’s visit hasn’t been all work. He has found time to visit a few of Lesotho’s scenic attractions and to attend a soccer match played by the national team, the Lesotho Crocodiles.

This visit is image building, too. He’s been all over the British papers in recent years for being bad, for propping up bars in some of London’s trendier clubs, for being in the company of women whose company is otherwise for sale by so-called escort agencies.

The headlines had reached the point where his father, Prince Charles, was said to have read his wayward son the riot act and grounded him. It’s all been grist for the gossip mill and, some say, not a bad thing.

“A bit of a fresh air,” says one royal watcher. “And could be a savior for the young people because I think a lot of young people will say, ‘He’s doing the same as we’re doing, so he must be a good guy.’”

In Britain, they call the one-year sabbatical that Prince Harry is on a "gap year," a year of experiencing life between his education at Eton and his enrollment at Sandhurst military academy in Britain.

Harry’s problem has been the gap – the gap between the way traditionalists think he should be behaving and the way he’s actually behaving - when he’s not doing enforced good works for a week in Africa.