Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa

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By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare, Zimbabwe (Jan. 3, 2007)

US television personality Oprah Winfrey took networking between African-Americans and Africans at home to new heights when she opened a US$40 million school for 150 disadvantaged girls in Henley-on-Klip, a few miles south of Johannesburg.

By doing so, Winfrey fulfilled a promise she made to Nelson Mandela six years ago that she would open a school to cater for disadvantaged girls from the black community.

"I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light," Winfrey told journalists recently.

Tina Turner, Mary J Blige, Maria Carey and actors Sidney Poitier and Chris Tucker and film director Spike Lee also graced the occasion in which they were asked to bring a personally inscribed book for the school library.

Mandela (88), who appeared frail and was supported by his wife, Graca Machel expressed his joy and thanked Winfrey for her devotion to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls which was giving hope to many disadvantaged girls from poor backgrounds.

"It is my hope that this school will become the dream of every South African girl and they will study hard and qualify for the school one day. I thank you for personal time and devotion to this school.

"This is not a distant donation but a project that clearly lies close to your heart," said Mandela beaming with joy.
Winfrey told reporters that she decided to build her own school because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.

"Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/Aids and this country which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic," she said.

"I was a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, like so many of these girls, with no water and electricity," Winfrey, dressed in a pink ball gown and jacket told the guest.

This academy was born out of the meeting Winfrey had with Mandela in 2000 and Winfrey says she build the academy in South Africa and not in the US 'out of love and respect for Mandela and because of her own African roots."

Another school for boys and girls is on cards in the KwaZulu-Natal province, she hinted.
Black schools in most of South Africa's townships are underfunded, overcrowded and lack basic learning materials. Gang violence, drug abuse and school girl pregnancies are also high in the schools.

Whites still enjoy better school facilities which the majority of blacks cannot afford.
There is no doubt that just like many other US celebrities are supporting the poor in Africa, Winfrey's gesture will make a difference to the lives of poor South African girls and give them a better and brighter future.

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