His Royal Highness, The Duke of Sussex, will play in the 2019 Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup at Roma Polo Club, Rome, Italy on the 24th May. Sentebale’s flagship event, will travel to Italy for the first time to raise funds and awareness of the charity’s work supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people whose lives have been affected by HIV in southern Africa.
Joining The Duke on the field will include, Sentebale Ambassador and Argentine polo player, Nacho Figueras, who will captain the Sentebale St. Regis Team, against the U.S. Polo Assn Team that will be captained by Royal Salute World Polo Ambassador, Malcolm Borwick.
Despite great progress made worldwide in combatting the AIDS epidemic, HIV remains one of the leading causes of death for adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, three out of four new HIV infections among 15–19-year-olds are among young women, and stigma is a major factor preventing youth knowing their HIV status and accessing lifesaving treatment and care.
Over the last decade, Sentebale has significantly scaled up its work in Lesotho and expanded into Botswana, addressing the mental health and wellbeing of 10 to 19-year-olds who are struggling to come to terms with living with HIV. In the last year, 1,700 adolescents have attended residential weeklong camps where together with their peers, they have a safe space to address their challenges, and today over 4,600 young people living with HIV attend our monthly Saturday clubs.
Funds raised from this year’s polo cup will enable Sentebale to continue helping many more young people in southern Africa giving them hope and opportunity for the future.
ISPS Handa (The International Sports Promotion Society), which was founded by Dr Haruhisa Handa in 2006 to further the transformative power of sport across the globe, is proud to assume the position of title sponsor for the Polo Cup this year.
The Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup will take place at Roma Polo Club, by invitation only. Along with event title sponsor ISPS Handa, other generous sponsors include; St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, U.S. Polo Assn., Royal Salute, and Moët & Chandon.
New this year, Sentebale and U.S. Polo Assn. have designed an apparel capsule collection, exclusively sold on-site, and 100% of the proceeds from the apparel sales will be donated to the Sentebale foundation.
Featured Photo Credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images – Prince Harry Duke of Sussex is greeted by Enda Kenny pose after the Sentebale Polo 2018 held at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club on July 26, 2018 in Windsor, England.