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I’m not much of a celebrity follower, but I do have some faves. One of those is Oprah (although I have to shamefully admit that the only show of hers I’ve seen is the one she did on the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia). She is making headlines right now as she is in South Africa to open her new $40 million academy for girls. She is starting with 152 girls, out of 3500 applicants, with plans to eventually have 450 girls.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine that went sale today she commented “When I first started making a lot of money, I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me. At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.”
Perusing her website, I found the following description of her school:
Planners advised that these African children were not accustomed to much—many sleep on dirt floors in housing with no water or electricity; some share a bed with relatives. Oprah was told that the simplest environment would be a luxury to them, that they would need only basics. She sent the plans back. “I said, from the start, I am creating everything in this school that I would have wanted for myself—so the girls will have the absolute best that my imagination can offer.
Every classroom has an outdoor teaching space, sometimes a garden. A leafy tree shading cool benches provides a place where Oprah imagines a girl can “sit with a book or be with [her]self.” Amid these soulful elements, the school will offer state-of-the-art technology, a gym, and, at Oprah’s insistence, a magnificent amphitheater, “for expression, art, poetry reading, and oratory.” Great leaders need to be great orators.
Every tile, door handle and finish has been Oprah’s particular choice. In the dormitories, each with its own small kitchen and terrace, Oprah’s touches abound. She has chosen white sheets, towels for their softness, pillowcases bearing an embroidered O, and the colors for the bathroom tiles—orange, green and happy yellow. The girls will sleep two to a room, each with her own spacious closet and desk. Hearing at the preliminary interview rounds that each girl will have her own bed, some of the candidates leapt with joy. “My own bed! That will be like heaven!” one cried.
She is creating not just a school, but a leadership institute. These young women will graduate with not only academic skills, but “training in decision making, critical and expansive thinking, social responsibility and the rewards of giving back to one’s own community, they will be prepared to lead in the quest for peace, progress, and prosperity in South Africa and the world.”
So once again, kudos to Oprah for really wanting to reach out and make a difference. Good for her! Those girls lives will be changed forever – and so will Oprah’s.
*Photo from People.com
Neat story, Holly!
Mary, mom to many
Think what Oprah and Angelina could do together. If Angelina could talk Oprah into donating a third of her income (as A does), that would be amazing. I don’t watch Oprah, but I think she’s a decent human being.
Maybe it’s trivial, but I do wish she’d embrace natural hair.
Oprah’s been getting loads of flack in the adoption world lately, mostly for what boils down to not having a firm grip on the acceptable language and speaking from the heart without understanding … or possibly not caring … how that puts some people’s backs up.
The celeb template is so subject to manipulation, and so not real in any real way, and so many have a strong agenda in how they push it.
Although I think personally picking out tiles and putting big O’s on everything is overkill on the involvment side, my hat is off to her for putting her money where her O is, and for setting up something that may actually have real impact down the line.
On the news here, they mentioned that girls would be screened for HIV because of the high insidence of HIV in our country. Does that mean that girls who test HIV+ will be excluded? Hmmm.
Perhaps they are being screened so that the school could provide the necessary medications? I just read “There is no me without you”–a FANTASTIC book about the AIDS and orphan crisis in Ethiopia. Although drug prices have now been reduced, it’s still unlikely that children will get the medications that we have the West that would allow them, with HIV, to live a full life. So I’m hoping they are screening in order to save their lives!
My answer is – I don’t know! I hope along with paulukon that they are being screened so they can get the medications they need to live a long, productive life with “just” a chronic disease, as AIDS has become in the US. Good question!