OPRAH WINFREY AND HER $40 MILLION GIFT

Oprah Winfrey has opened the doors to her self-funded South African school for disadvantaged girls on Tuesday, six years and $40 million after she first announced the venture.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, located in the town of Henley-on-Klip just south of Johannesburg, has long been a pet project of the talk show host, who pledged to make the newly opened center “the best school in the world.”

“I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light,” Winfrey said, adding that by educating the next generation of South African girls, she hoped to “change the face of a nation.”

When Oprah was asked about why not open a school and the States she said, “When you ask the children what they want they reply ipod and sneakers. But in South African the children’s reply was uniforms for school.”

Former South African president Nelson Mandela was present at the ceremony, as were Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Sidney Poitier, Chris Tucker and Spike Lee, all of whom were asked to bring a personally inscribed book for the school’s library.

As it is, only 152 girls, aged 11 and 12, were selected for the inaugural class at the Academy, out of 3,500 national applicants. Requirements for acceptance include having a household income of no more than $787 per month and undertaking a personal interview with headmaster Winfrey. The 28-building campus includes state-of-the-art computer and science labs, a theater, a wellness center, a yoga center, a beauty salon and, last but not least, classrooms.

Congrats to Oprah for during a good deed once again.