Oprah Winfrey is attempting to recover her all-girls school’s reputation in South Africa following an abuse scandal that pushed her towards closing it down.
The television host recently came out with an announcement about the school that she opened for girls in South Africa, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. This week, she released an official statement that the academy was closing its doors and that she will dedicate more efforts to a scholarship program for young women instead. The announcement came approximately six years after an abuse scandal heavily damaged the school’s reputation, leading some to believe the two headlines must be tied together. Read more about her announcement and the closing of the school below.
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Oprah Winfrey's All-Girls School In South Africa Faced Abuse Allegations
Though she's most commonly known for her television and film appearances, the former talk show host is also highly praised for her philanthropy, making generous donations and setting up foundations and grants throughout her long, successful career.
One of those achievements was the opening of a prestigious yet accessible all-girls school near Johannesburg, South Africa, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The school was opened in 2007 after she had important and inspiring conversations with Nelson Mandela about educating women in that part of the world.
With a $40M budget, the school was a very exciting moment in South African history, allowing young women to get an education that assisted them in finding jobs or going to college. However, the reputation of the academy was heavily damaged when it was revealed in the year it opened that Virginia Mokgobo, who worked as a dormitory matron at the school, was charged with 13 counts of assault, indecent assault, and soliciting underage girls to perform indecent acts.
Though she was later acquitted, the Color Purple actress called the incident "one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating" experiences of her life.
Oprah Announces The Closing Of Her Academy Nearly Two Decades Following Abuse Scandal
The book club owner and the school released a big statement this week that, after almost two decades of serving young women in South Africa, and after attempting to recover from the abuse allegations and scandal, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls would be shutting its doors.
"The dream was never simply to build a school," she wrote in her statement, as reported by People. "It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women. That mission doesn't end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education."
Now, instead of having a school, Oprah's goal of educating South African girls would continue through a national scholarship program that financially supported especially talented girls in schools across the country.
According to the school's representatives, after two more classes of young women graduate, the others "will go to other top-tier schools with their tuition paid for in total by Ms. Winfrey through their graduation."
"I'm excited that this next chapter will allow us to reach even more young women across South Africa and continue the promise that began more than 20 years ago," Oprah added.
