It's official; Oprah Winfrey loves schoolgirls. Luckily, Oprah Winfrey doesn't love schoolgirls in the same way your pervert uncle does – we don't think Oprah has ever been arrested in the playing field with her trousers round her ankles – but in a better way.
In fact, Oprah Winfrey loves schoolgirls so much that she's just spent $40 million building a brand new school to give a modern education to up to 450 talented South African girls who would otherwise not be able to afford schooling, in the hope that one day they will gain enough knowledge to say "Please don't adopt me Madonna, I've got a Mum and Dad and everything. Not all Africans are orphans, you know" in a language she will understand.
Oprah Winfrey is in love with generosity. Hardly a day passes without Oprah Winfrey giving stuff away. You can see Oprah Winfrey's generosity in the way that Oprah gives everyone in her audience a car, or at the very least a poorly-conceived charity debit card. You can hear Oprah Winfrey's generosity in the way that she is always on the radio, always talking about herself. And you can feel Oprah Winfrey's generosity in the way that she sues anyone who likes her enough to think she'd be a good president. OK, that last one isn't the best example.
But Oprah Winfrey doesn't just enjoy helping Americans. She enjoys helping people from all around the world – except for French people who won't sell her twillys, obviously. And that's why Oprah Winfrey has made good on a six-year-old promise to Nelson Mandela about funding and building a school for underprivileged South Africans, as BBC News reports:
The school – in the small town of Henley-on-Klip south of Johannesburg – cost $40m (£20m) to build… The academy selects girls whose family income is less than $700 a month. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy will eventually cater for 450 girls who show outstanding promise but whose families cannot support their education. The school incorporates 28 buildings, across a 20 hectare (50 acre) site, with hi-tech classrooms, computers and science laboratories… "When I first started making a lot of money, I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write cheque after cheque to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me," she told America's Newsweek magazine. "At a certain point, you want to feel that connection," she added.
While it's an undeniably admirable thing for Oprah Winfrey to spend over five times more on educating the poor than that Jennifer Aniston wedding she supposedly had in the works, questions are bound to be raised over the quality of curriculum that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy will supply to its students. Already it's thought that lessons at the Oprah Winfrey School will include seminars on how to take your relationship to a whole new level and in-depth tutorial sessions on Ellen Pompeo's favourite books, a competition to write the best essay about how Oprah didn't even want to go to Tom's wedding anyway and the interestingly-titled course Never Look Oprah In The Eye When She Comes To Visit You.
Read more:
devin says
It’s interesting to see that Oprah still isn’t too likeable even after spending $40 million on a school in Africa. What does the woman need to do to stop people thinking she’s a douche?
Nancy Ndirangu says
It was lovely to see the girls excitement about the promise that there will always be food for them. the school is the best thing that has happened to the continent in the recent past. God bless Oprah
fifi says
Control disguised as charity is not charitable. A true act of charity is to relinquish control over what you have given and not to use it as a marketing tool. An anonymous gesture would have been true charity.
lacey gjkg says
i think you are a great role modale for everyone for ritch and for poor because you do have have mony and you user it but you use things like your personallty to