It’s impossible to list all the contributions Oprah Winfrey has made, and continues to make. Her own inspiring story of overcoming tremendous odds to become one of the richest and most generous people on earth is only the beginning.
From 2004-2010, she ranked among the 50 most generous Americans, giving mostly (but by all means not only) to educational causes.
In a way, it’s a misnomer to call Oprah Winfrey a “woman without children,” because she refers so proudly to the hundreds of students at her Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
Winfrey invested $40 million as well as some of her time establishing the school. Set over 22 acres in Henley on Klip south of Johannesburg, South Africa, it opened in January 2007 with an enrollment of 150 pupils and features state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science laboratories, a library, theatre and beauty salon.
Critics considered the school elitist and unnecessarily luxurious. Winfrey’s response: “If you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you.”
“I never had children, never even thought I would have children,” she told an interviewer, “Now I have 152 daughters; expecting 75 more next year. That is some type of gestation period!”
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