OPRAH WINFREY - WINFREY FOUNDS SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL FOR DEPRIVED GIRLS

US talk show queen OPRAH WINFREY today (02JAN07) 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 (GBP20.4 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 which 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."