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Oprah’s school for girls in South Africa to hold its 1st graduation
She hopes to adapt some of the practices of her school, including creating strong support networks for students.
“It takes a lot of support, it takes a whole team,” she said, saying teachers and communities would have to be active participants.
Her focus on girls was not among the strategies she would change. Winfrey said studies have shown helping girls helps entire communities, in part because girls and women give back so much.
“I know what it’s like to be a poor girl with your heart’s desire to do well in the world,” she added. “I chose to use my philanthropy to do what I know.”
Winfrey said she also might work more quietly in the future, to spare those she helps the kind of scrutiny celebrity draws.
The achievements at Winfrey’s school came despite turmoil in its first years.
A woman working as a dormitory matron at the school was accused of abusing teenagers soon after it was opened. She was acquitted in 2010. Winfrey, who has spoken of being abused as a child and called the allegations against the matron crushing, and has said the trial’s outcome was “profoundly” disappointing.
Winfrey settled a defamation lawsuit filed in Philadelphia by the school’s former headmistress, Nomvuyo Mzamane, who claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks made in the wake of the scandal.
Last year, a baby born to a student at the school was found dead. The events would have been newsworthy had they involved any school, but drew particularly frenzied attention because of the Winfrey connection.
