HOLLYWOOD - Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey today opened a school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa, fulfilling a promise she made to former South African President Nelson Mandela six years ago.
The $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, situated in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg, aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a high quality education.
The opening was attended by singers Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, actors Sidney Poitier and Chris Tucker, and director Spike Lee.
Mandela said in a statement, "This is a lady that has, despite her own disadvantaged background, become one of the benefactors of the disadvantaged throughout the world."
At a press conference to mark the opening, Winfrey said she hoped the school would "change the face of a nation. Girls who are educated are less likely to get AIDS and in this country that has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic.
"I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light."
COPYRIGHT 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved.
Photo(s) by Scott Kirkland- © 2006- DailyCeleb.com- All Rights Reserved