African project
‘Mamohato Children’s Centre
Sentebale is a charity founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of
Lesotho, which helps the most vulnerable children in Lesotho get the
support they need to lead healthy and productive lives. The recently
completed ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre will allow Sentebale to support
four times the number of children living with HIV than before.
harvests, which increase the vulnerability of Lesotho’s poorest farmers. More than half
the country depends on food assistance to survive, and in September 2012 the United
Nations launched an appeal to help 725 000 people (a third of Lesotho’s population)
affected by a food crisis.
The ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre is a result of Sentebale’s mission to be able to
provide support to even more children in Lesotho; it will allow Sentebale to support
four times the number of children living with HIV than previously able to cater for
with rented facilities, and will serve as a platform for expansion into other southern
African countries where there is a similar need.
The ‘Mamohato Children’s Centre is based on an amalgamation of input from several
different architects, with contribution from The Prince’s Foundation for Building
Community and the final design being signed off by Archiplan. The brief for the centre
was two-fold: from a practical perspective, it was to be able to facilitate the running
of Sentebale camps for children and adolescents living with HIV, along with their
own Sentebale staff premises; from an aesthetics perspective, it was to ensure that
africandesignmagazine.com
35