The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

“The world’s most successful woman has always shared her wealth. But her latest project is really one for the books.”

Two thousand and six was the year Africa went Hollywood: Madonna, Clooney, Brangelina. And now, in 2007, the most exclusive spot on the continent will undoubtedly be in the town of Henley-on-Klip, about 40 miles outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Set on 22 lush acres and spread over 28 buildings, the complex features oversize rooms done in tasteful beiges and browns with splashes of color, 200-thread-count sheets, a yoga studio, a beauty salon, indoor and outdoor theaters, hundreds of pieces of original tribal art and sidewalks speckled with colorful tiles. As spectacular as this place sounds, it’s not a resort. It’s a school: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

The $40 million academy aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid. The school looks absolutely fabulous. Click here to see pictures.

“The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be; it will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.” — Oprah

Oprah says she decided to build her own school because she was tired of charity from a distance. “When I first started making a lot of money,” she says, “I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me. At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.” But there’s another reason Oprah has put so much, and so much of herself, into this school. Like her students, she grew up poor—truly a coal miner’s daughter—with dim hopes for the future. She was raped as a girl and ultimately raised by her grandmother. To a certain degree, she is building this school for herself: the plucky girl who became one of the most successful women in the world yet still feels that pain. I wanted to hear those things as a child. If she can save these girls, perhaps she can rescue that child, too.

Oprah is a true inspiration and social entrepreneur. Bravo.