Gap year prince meets Aids victims

Prince Harry has met Aids victims and TB sufferers as part of his gap year experience, it was revealed today.

The latest chapter in the prince's adventure is a visit to the tiny, mountainous African country of Lesotho, where life expectancy is just 37 years and a third of the population is estimated to have HIV or Aids.

Harry, 19, who has been in Africa for a month, has already helped build a river roadbridge and lay the foundations of a new health centre, and has also worked alongside farmers digging water trenches.

Security constraints have meant that details of this leg of his gap year had until now been kept secret. Today, however, it was revealed that his next project will be helping to build the Mants'ase Children's Home in remote Mohale's Hoek, where many local children have lost their parents to HIV or Aids.

The prince will be part of a 10-man team, which also includes his friend George Hill, building fences and planting trees at the orphanage. Palace aides say Harry is loving "roughing it" in a country which has little in the way of infrastructure.

Accompanied by a Scotland Yard protection officer, he is learning how aid agencies and charities operate in the field. Palace officials say the itinerary reflects Harry's "genuine interest" in helping people with health difficulties or who lack social and educational opportunities.

While in the village of Matsieng, Harry shadowed a local doctor on his rounds, seeing for himself the suffering of HIV and tuberculosis patients.

George Hill, son of Princess Diana's former flatmate Annie Hill, befriended the prince when he worked on the Hill family's ranch in Australia. The two are guests of Prince Seeiso, younger brother of Lesotho's King Letsie III.

In his spare time Harry has been to a nature reserve and a soccer match between Lesotho and Botswana. Today he will attend a photocall for the world's press. Prince Charles has sent his new £100,000-a-year PR guru Paddy Harverson to oversee the event.

Despite Harry's determination to show his "serious side", some Palace staff have privately expressed concern about his decision to extend his gap year from one to two years. The official reason for delaying his entry to the Military Academy at Sandhurst until September 2005 is that most cadets are aged at least 21.

One close aide said: "Although he can be a bit of a handful, he is just a teenager who likes to enjoy himself."

In Lesotho, where nearly half the population live below the poverty line and the economy survives on subsistence farming, there will be scant opportunity for the Prince of Fun to do that. If he did want a night off from his charity work Maseru, Lesotho's capital, boasts one nightclub - Planet 8 - which offers neverending fun for under £10. But another aide said: "He is here to contribute and to learn."