Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls

2 comments | February 10th, 2007 | Trackback

Briefly, for those who have been living under a rock, Oprah Winfrey has build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy outside Johannesburg, South Africa, which will accommodate and educate 150 girls; she’s spent about five years and $40 million to provide “the best” of everything. She cites her own challenging childhood as well as her desire to feel a personal connection to a charity as inspirations for this venture.

The local government has pulled out of the project without giving a reason, but: “”The country is very obviously poor, and so few children have a chance at education,” says one South African school official who asked not to be identified because he didn’t want to offend Oprah. “It is hard not to see that many feel that what Ms. Winfrey is doing is too much.””

Do they feel the money should be spent to benefit more children…or just not so much spent on these?

It does make me raise my eyebrows to hear, “She also insisted that the dorm rooms and the closets be extra large, even though the girls have minimal amounts of clothes. “People asked me why it was important to have closet space, and it’s because they will have something,” she says. “We plan to give them a chance to earn money to buy things. That’s the only way to really teach them how to appreciate things.”

Once again, there are different ways of interpreting this; I’ll leave it up to readers to decide for themselves.

All this said, it is nice to be treated well. I remember hearing about an initiative which provided suitcases for foster children who frequently moved from one home to another. My first though was: that’s not a solution! The quality of their luggage matters little; the real solution would be to find them good homes or assist their own parents so they can care for them. But one of the kids said something along the lines of, “we used to use big garbage bags. It makes you feel better to not have to put your stuff in a garbage bag.” The true problem is huge. It may not have a solution. But this small step did make a difference for the kids.

Oprah’s school is different: education is most definitely a tangible benefit, as is the self-confidence which the girls will likely develop. People with money can already buy an exclusive education – should this be the sole domain of the wealthy? Through her Angel Network, Oprah has given an astounding amount of money to various causes. Is this latest Academy the best use of her funds?