Oprah's New School Makes Kids Play for Water

Mon, 19 March 2007 12:00:00 ET

Oprah's new school -after the girls' leadership academy- will use seesaws and merry-go-rounds to pump water as the children play, it also has gardens to supply for school meals.

Pupils at Oprah Winfrey's new South African school will play for their water. The Seven Fountains Primary School will deal with an irregular water supply by using see-saws and merry-go-rounds to pump water into a tank as the children play.

Oprah - who opened the school in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province town of Kokstad on Friday (16.03.07) - said: "The Seven Fountains School is an example of what schools in South Africa can become. It can be done within the expectations of budgets. We used our imagination and creativity to build not only a good school but a great school."

The 53-year-old TV star first visited the school - which has over 1,000 pupils - in 2002 when it was located on a farm. It was later forced to move into a dilapidated building with no windows. In 2004, Oprah's Angel Network committed $1.6 million to building a new building.

The school has 25 classrooms, three multipurpose rooms, a library, computer centre, landscaped playground and two sports fields. As well as its revolutionary water supply it also uses solar power and has landscaped gardens that supply vegetables for school meals.

Oprah told the children on Friday: "We thought the school you had before was not good enough, so we wanted to build the best school for you. We are here today to celebrate the transformative power of education."

This is Oprah's second school for poor South African children to open this year. In January, she opened the Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg. The boarding school has since been criticised for being too strict and only allowing the girls limited contact with their families.

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