With every decision she makes, Oprah keeps her future students in mind. She knows that many sleep on dirt floors or share one bed with multiple members of their family. Many also live in housing with no water or electricity. "I wanted to go to places and find these girls where opportunity is shut down because of poverty and all of the other remnants of apartheid," Oprah says.
Ziphozonke lives with her grandmother in a neighborhood where just walking down the street can be dangerous. She wakes up at 4 a.m. most mornings to walk through her community to the bus stop. It's an hour ride to school. She always prays she won't be attacked. "You're a brave girl. You have to really love school to do that," Oprah says. "I do," Ziphozonke says.
