ABC Primetime Special Saturday 3rd March, 2007.

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls It started as a dream, and manifested itself into reality-the birth of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls-South Africa is a boarding school for grades seven through twelve. “This is a school for leaders,” says Oprah. “A school for powerful girls who will use their power in service to their nation and to our world.” The academy staff distributed 5,500 applications and 3,500 girls responded. However, the Primetime special highlighted six extraordinary girls: Thando, Lesego, Megan & Sade, Zodwa, Ziphozonke, and Maltase. Thando is a 13-year-old with a dazzling personality. She believes South Africa should have a woman president because “women can multi-task. Thando’s inspiration comes from her grandmother. Thando’s grandmother works as a maid for a white family. Her mother is unemployed, so her grandmother is the one that pays for Thando’s schooling. Thando is grateful to her grandmother. She inspires to me as generous and as kind as her grandmother. Excellent in Mathematics, 13-year-old Lesego, possess great leadership qualities. She teaches a poetry class after school. Lesego lives with her dad in a house where the ceiling is caving from rain and there is no indoor plumbing. Her mother left her at the age of four. This neglect angers Lesego and she remains upset with her mother. Lesego states her mother can not take back the years that she missed. Lesego see the school as her destiny. “I am know for a fact that I’m going to get into that school,” she says. “Come hell or high waters, I am going to this school.” Megan and Sade are sister, only one year apart. Their father shot their mother and then turned around and shot himself. The sisters’ positive attitude has gotten them through this dilemma. Sade, the younger sister is talkative and very outgoing. However, Megan possesses a quite inner strength. Zodwa lives in one of the poorest and most dangerous community in South Africa. She lives with her grandparents. Her mother passed away the previous year-she had HIV/AIDS. Zodwa is 12-years-old. Every day walks from school present danger. People carry guns and knives, and men try to grasps her threatening to have sex with her. Everyday she prays “God save me form being the next victim that is raped and abused.” Ziphozonke lives with her grandmother in a neighborhood where walking the streets maybe dangerous. Almost every week day she wakes up at four o clock in the morning to catch the bus to walk to school. The bus ride is an hour ride to school. It’s Ziphozonke pray every morning that she is not attack as she walks to the bus stop. Maltase is also twelve. She lives in a tin shack with her sister and mother. They share one room and bed. There is no electrical lighting and inner plumbing. Maltase does her homework at night by candle. Maltase, however, is determined to strive for excellence. She scored outstanding scores on her Mathematics test. After the interviews were over, the academic performance and leadership potential of each girl was examine. A few weeks later, some of the girls were invited back for what was assumed to be a final interview. Those girls were those chosen to be apart of the very first class of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy. To celebrate with the girls and Winfrey was a host of dignities and celebrities: Sidney Poitier, Quincy Jones, former South African President Nelson Mandela, Spike Lee, Tina Turner, Chris Tucker, India Arie, Diane Sawyer, Chris Rock, and Mary J Blige, amongst others. Nelson Mandela and Oprah Winfrey addressed the audience. “We hope that the school will become the dream of every young South African girl”, states Mandela. For Oprah, it is a dream come true. “The spirit of myself, the very essence of who I am, will always be with those girls because my goal is to provide opportunities for girls to continue to shine into the future, not just now, but one hundred years form now.” Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy was constructed on fifty two acres southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty buildings were built including a theater, dinning hall, classrooms, library and dormitories. Oprah wanted to make sure everything was provided for the girls, so she personally sought to uniforms, which she personally designed. “Oprah’s touch” created a mural, fireplace in the library, and white sheets and pillowcase embroidered O, amongst many other creations.