EURweb |
OPRAH’S ANGEL NETWORK FUNDS S. AFRICAN SCHOOL: TV host scheduled to attend today’s dedication.
*Oprah Winfrey is scheduled to participate today in a dedication ceremony for a newly-constructed school in South Africa that was funded by her Angel Network.
Seven Fountains Primary School, a public institution in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, is open to both girls and boys and is run by the KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Education, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
In contrast, the $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened earlier this year, is run privately and features administrators, teachers and a curriculum chosen by Winfrey.
Seven Fountains serves about 1,000 mostly black and poor students in grades K-7. Oprah and 40 employees of her Chicago-based Harpo Studios visited the school in Kokstad five years ago as part of an effort to donate food, clothing, school supplies and other gifts to 50,000 children in South African orphanages and rural schools, reports the newspaper.
Winfrey noticed the school’s dilapidated state and volunteered to build another one in its place. The new school, which opened in January, includes 25 classrooms, a community library, toilets, computer rooms and heaters to keep students warm in winter months, according to a report in The Mercury newspaper of Durban, South Africa.
"Our intention is that Seven Fountains Primary School will serve as a model for other public schools in South Africa," said a rep for Angel Network .
There is one aspect shared by both Seven Fountains and Winfrey’s school for girls. Parents at the primary school have said that the rules are very strict.
"It's like one of those Roman Catholic schools," said Cynthia Madlebe, 33, who lives in Kokstad and has two nieces attending the new school, according to the Sun-Times. "The girls are not allowed to have long hair and they must wear uniforms."
But the rules haven’t soured the kids’ experiences.
"They say they like it very much," Madlebe said.
Share and Bookmark |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
