It started as a wish for a first-class school that would nurture, educate, and turn gifted young South African girls from impoverished backgrounds into the country’s future leaders.

Now that wish has come true.

Yesterday Oprah, along with a slew of celebrities, opened The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. The school, which is a hour south from Johannesburg, is an innovative high school whose aim is to discover, teach and inspire young South African girls to become a new generation of leaders. It is the first of several she hopes to build in struggling communities on every continent. The goal was to find brave girls, children who have already conquered adversity with a feeling of “I can!”

Oprah’s own success has come from a strong background in reading and learning. She believes that the greatest gift you can give is the gift of learning.

South Africa was chosen because “it is the country of new beginnings, only 12 years out of Apartheid, and also because of my deep love for Nelson Mandela and all that he means to this country and to the world.”

The academy sits on a 52-acre site suggested by the Department of Education. It’s a full campus with 28 buildings nearing completion. Oprah has created the library she wished for as a girl, arranging plush seating around a welcoming fireplace, “so the girls can read by the fire and spend time there with their friends.” All of the classrooms have an outdoor teaching space, where a girl can “sit with a book or be with [her]self“.

The school will offer state-of-the-art technology, a gym, and, a magnificent amphitheater. Everything in the school has been chosen by Oprah herself. She has been very hands on with the selection of sheets, towels and pillowcases to the tiles and door handles.

Artwork by both renowned and emerging artists from all over South Africa has been commissioned so that the girls can live in appreciation and celebration of their heritage.

In August Oprah flew to Africa to personally interview the young ladies applying to attend the academy. Of the 3,000 applicants only 150 were accepted. During the process they were asked to tell her their favorite subjects and what they want to be when they grow up. They dream of becoming astronauts, chartered accountants, teachers. When asked who they currently live with most list grandfathers, cousin or aunts. Many have lost a parent to AIDS, some have been raped, others abandoned. Most are left to look after their young siblings.

The plans are for only 15 girls in a classroom, where each child will have attention. Her requirements are stringent: No pregnancies, no drugs or alcohol; hair must be short or neatly braided. Her hopes are high: The charter group will be made up of 7th and 8th graders, who will become the first two graduating classes. By then the school will have a student body of approximately 450. Trained in decision making, critical and expansive thinking, social responsibility and the rewards of giving back to one’s own community, they will be prepared to lead in the quest for peace, progress, and prosperity in South Africa and the world.

I am so proud of Oprah for dedicating her time and personal finances to improving the lives of these promising young women. I hope she has plans for the young men as well. There can be no symmetry without both sides being properly educated. The young men of Africa need great oppurtunities as well.

SOURCE:OPRAH.COM

There are so many reason researchers have come up with for prematurity, it seems like almost everything causes babies to come early. The latest suggestion is a common cervical treatment.

The Daily Mail reports:

Women who undergo a common treatment of the cervix are more likely to have a premature baby later in life, according to research out today.

The study found women who underwent loop excision, the most common treatment for removing precancerous cells of the cervix, had an increased risk of having an early baby.

When the results were combined with those from other studies, there was a clear association, the authors said.

But laser ablation, where the cells are killed off by a laser, was not associated with increased risk.

Changes to the cells of the cervix can be picked up through a smear or ‘Pap’ test.

Women who have an abnormal smear test result are usually invited to hospital for further investigation. Treatment is then offered to remove any precancerous cells.

The paper, published in the January edition of the journal, BJOG, owned by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), involved more than 5,000 women.

Researchers from Melbourne University and Royal Women’s Hospital in Australia compared data for women who had undergone treatments for removing precancerous cells between 1982 and 2000.

The methods looked at by the researchers were loop excision (where an electrical current is passed around a wire in order to remove a tissue sample), cone biopsy (where tissue is removed with a cone-shaped blade), diathermy (where an electrical current is used directly on the tissue), and laser ablation (where the tissue is destroyed by a laser beam).

Loop excision, which is sometimes also referred to as LEEP, means the tissue can be examined for disease whereas a laser actually destroys it.

Laser ablation is also considered an expensive and tricky treatment, although studies have previously shown that both loop and laser have a similar success rate.

All treatments other than laser ablation were found to be associated with increased risk. This is the first time that a link has been made between loop excision and premature birth, the authors noted.

They also found that both treated and untreated women who had precancerous cells were at increased risk of premature birth, suggesting treatment was not the only risk factor.

They said: “Women presenting with precancerous changes in the cervix are at an increased risk for preterm birth, a risk that appears to be increased by treatments that remove or destroy substantial amounts of cervical tissue.

“While we acknowledge that there are clinical scenarios where excisional treatment is necessary, we believe that treatment programmes that have adopted a “see and treat” policy for the management of abnormal Pap smears need to be re-evaluated in the light of these findings.