Prince Harry's visit to Brazil this week has hardly been confined to World Cup games — the young royal has shown his face everywhere from a birthday party for his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, to some of the poorest areas of the country.
While touring Diadema, a town outside of São Paulo, Prince Harry met with Acer (the Association for Support of Children at Risk) and learned the stories of Karina, 8, and Carolina, 9, who are being raised by their grandmother, Cristina da Cruz Nascimento. Their father is in jail and their mother was murdered at 24, reports Us Weekly, and as Harry explained to reporters, it reminded him of the loss of his own mother when he was 12.
But instead of making it about himself, he demonstrated an empathetic streak his mother would rightly be proud of.
"The bravery of them looking at me, smiling at me ... I wanted to use my own experiences in a very small way to try to give them a bit of understanding about the fact that I see what you're going through," he told the Telegraph. "But you hear the stories and think that's nothing to what they have been through."
Prince Harry getting letters from @acerbrasil in Diadema. An unforgettable visit. #HarryinBrazil
This was Prince Harry's second time in Brazil, and he showed plenty of personality at his public events, playing football with young children, painting murals, and giving a speech about the relationship between Britain and Brazil.
He couldn't resist a few opportunities to show off his impish personality, however, as when he joked that "planting trees -- it's what [royals] do" while kneeling in the rainforest, and interrupting his speech at the birthday party to note, "I can't believe someone actually brought a dog with them" into the event.
The prince is now heading to Chile, where he will visit the Presidential Palace and a kindergarten, reports MyDailyUK.
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