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COM.6 (2-78) THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
6 January 2004
Dear Ms. Winfrey,
I have followed with keen interest your recent travels in Africa and the bold initiatives you have launched in support of the struggle against HIV/AIDS.
Thank you for helping to put the spotlight on this terrible tragedy, which has already cost many lives and orphaned so many innocent children, particularly in Africa. Your strong personal commitment is greatly appreciated.
I continue to place the fight against HIV/AIDS among my top priorities in order to galvanize international support for decisive action. Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as well as Mr. Stephen Lewis, my Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, assist me in our efforts to mobilize the necessary resources to tackle the pandemic effectively. You may wish to contact them to explore areas of possible collaboration.
I am heartened by the important work you are doing to create public awareness of the need for action to alleviate the suffering of millions of men, women and children who are victims of this terrible scourge.
Kofi'A. Annan
Ms. Oprah Winfrey Chicago Copyright 2003 American Broadcasting Companies. Inc. ABC News Transcripts
SHOW: PRIMETIME LIVE (10:00 PM ET) - ABC
December 17. 2003 Wednesday
LENGTH: 6088 words
HEADLINE: PRIMETIME LIVE OPRAH IN AFRICA
BODY:
ANNOUNCER
Oprah, and the children Santa Clans never finds.
OPRAH WINFREY. TV TALK SHOW HOST
One. two. three. Open your presents.
ANNOUNCER
Now, what Oprah calls her life's greatest mission. Saving the babies, the seven-year-olds, the orphaned and needy of an entire nation.
OPRAH WINFREY
It's not just that your mother is dead and your father is dead. It's that you have nobody. You are orphaned. You are alone.
ANNOUNCER
Diane Sawyer, with Oprah Winfrey. A personal journey to Africa, and how it turned into the calling of a lifetime.
OPRAH WINFREY
I think the uorld has no idea of what is to come if we do not do something now.
ANNOUNCER
The remarkable faces and stories of need she says we can't afford to ignore.
OPRAH WINFREY
I was so haunted by Thanda. haunted.
ANNOUNCER
But from so much pain, surprising joy. and innocent laughter.
OPRAH WINFREY
And the little girl said to me. "so you live in America, ma'am. Do you know Britney Spears?"
ANNOUNCER Diane Sauyer and Oprah Winfrey. A "Primetime" special for all the holidays. "Oprah in Africa." Now. from New York. Diane Sawyer.
tiraphics: Oprah in Africa
DIANE SAWYER. ABC NEWS
(OfTCamera) Good evening. And welcome to this special edition of "Primetime." There are probably are only a handful of people in this country uho can stand in their kitchens one day. have an idea, and then turn it into a world- changing event. Oprah Winfrey, as everyone knows, has given away tens and tens of millions of dollars in America. But a while back, she had one of those ideas for Christmas. She took her own cameras along uith her. And as you're about to see. she ended up in a place in her own heart, not on any map.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Africa, a continent pulsing with hope and longing. A place of radiant smiles, even as it sings a song or' sadness. And there is someone that wants you to know that every minute in Africa. 64 more people will die of AIDS.
OPRAH WINFREY
I have seen mothers and grandmothers literally in the trenches bringing up the dead in wheelbarrows and helping people to bury their dead.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) An ocean of death, leaving behind a whole generation of children without parents, food, or a door\\ay out. 11 million of them and more everyday.
OPRAH WINFREY
Somehow I thought that these children were being taken care of. I think I did not get. until 1 actually followed some of the children home. Oh. it means you have nobody. It's not just that your mother is dead and your father is dead. It's that you have nobody. You are orphaned. You are alone.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Oprah Winfrey. that uniquely American inspiration. Superstar and best friend to millions of Americans she's never met. She was also a woman standing at a kind of crossroads about a year ago. even though she thought she was just at her new house, making decorating choices and musing on the holidays.
OPRAH WINFREY
You know, just consumed by the tile choices. And what am I going to do with the kitchen'? And should the color be this? And what am I going to do with the cabinets? And should it be beveled glass or not0 And I was thinking that I was going to make the best Christmas I ever had moving into my new house.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) As everyone knows, America's first black female billionaire grew up without electricity, running water, or a horizon. So her idle reflection about her best Christmas surprised her.
OPRAH WINFREY
And 1 thought, well, you know, the best Christmas I ever remember having was when I was 12 years old and living with my mother in Milwaukee. And my mother was on welfare, taking care of me and another half-sister and brother And she'd come to me as the oldest and said, "we won't be having Christmas this year." And I said "why not?" And she said, "because we don't have enough money." And I said, "well, what about Santa Claus?" And she says, "we don't have money to pay Santa Claus." And I thought. >ou have to pay him? Santa Claus gets paid? What about the naughty or nice thine0 No. she says, "we don't have money for Santa Claus. And don't ask me anymore questions."
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) No monev for a single present. She went to bed in shame and heart break.
OPRAH WINFREY
And 1 remember thinking in that moment, 1 was thinking, 1 can fake it for tomorrow, but what am 1 going to do when 1 go to school 'cause you're going to have lots of kids. "How am 1 going to save face?" Is what I thought. 'Cause I. too. was embarrassed because I realized that we are really poor, we must really be poor, we must really be poor.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) And then, late at night, a little girl is amazed.
OPRAH WINFREY
We'd all gone to bed and 1 remember the doorbell ringing. And three nuns showed up at our house. And the> had brought food, a turkey. And they brought, a food basket. And they brought toys for my half- sister and half-brother and for myself. And I really didn't care what the toy was. As it turned out, it was a Tammy doll. But it didn't matter to me what it was because I thought, now, I have a story. And that, in my memory, was the strongest feeling I'd ever had of somebodv lifting me up. Just their kindness really made me feel so much better about myself that 1 never forgot it. So I thought, "how could I do that for somebody else? How could I do that?" And I thought "Africa."
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Wait. Win'1
OPRAH WINFREY
Why Africa0 I thought Africa because I'd had previous conversations with Nelson Mandela.
DIANI-: SAWYER
(Voice Over) Nelson Mandela, revered father of South African freedom, uho told her about the orphans and the children so poor that at Christmas, he'd seen them \\alk miles just hoping to get a balloon or a whistle. So she decided to phone the staff of her foundation and sa> she was going to go to Africa for Christmas and take presents to tens of thousands of kids.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) At one point you had to sa>. "what am I going to do for Christmas'1" And the next thing >ou kmnv. vou're organizing a giant project in South Africa. Did you sav "I'm crazy"0
OPRAH WINFREY-
NO. 1 didn't. I never said. "I'm crazy." Only for a moment did everybody go. "\ou want to do what?" So. back in Chicago. \\e started picking out clothes, jeans and shoes for everv child.
DIANE SAWYER (Voice Over) You're looking at some of her private tapes, a kind of video diary of an impulse becoming a power surge of purpose. First, she sent people out to research which gifts would bring light into an African child's eyes.
OPRAH WINFREY
We spoke to some orphanages and were told that the girls had never seen a black doll. Can \ou imagine, there are no black dolls0 There are no black dolls. I had every black doll in America in my office auditioning for the chance to be in the South African gift packet.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) And the winner was?
OPRAH WINFREY
And the winner was Ashley.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) So her brilliant idea of emotion. Was it mostly going to make her feel good?
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Let me ask a couple of the skeptic's questions here, what difference is one day going to make in the lives of children0
OPRAH WINFREY
I knew that one day would make a \\orld of difference. Because you will forever, just like 1 have never forgotten the day the nuns came to see me.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) So, to give other children a day to remember, on December 3rd, her curious caravan arrived in a tiny town just outside Johannesburg. She had hired 100 people to mobilize it all and get word out through villages and orphanages and schools that children were invited to a Christmas party. A tent was raised. The snacks were read). She admits, hhe didn't have a clue what would happen next.
OPRAH WINFREY
The first dav we vserejust like, "is an>bodv gonna show up? Oh. mv goodness." So when you see those children coming over the horizon you're like "oh. they knew."
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Coming, and how they came.. The barefoot. The hungry. Many of them orphans, marching like tin\ veterans in a war the world has ignored. ]
OPRAH WINFREY
For hours and hours and miles and miles. When 1 say miles. 1 mean like. 10 miles. 12 miles, to get to this party that they really don't know what's going on.
DIANE SAWYER (Voice Over) First thing, something brand new for so many of the children. Their feet are measured. And then Polaroid photos, when they'd never even had a photo of any kind.
OPRAH WINFREY
I remember explaining to a child the first time we took their Polaroid, a little girl had on a little red polka-dot dress. And was saying, "see. this is this, and that's you." Everybody1 here today will receive a present. Every black girl should have a black doll. All the boys get a football. When you walk out today, you get a brand-new pair of sneakers.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) As they open their packages. Oprah, so sure of her instincts, is in for a surprise. Her friend Gail King noticed it first.
OPRAH WINFREY
She's saying, "I can't believe these kids are more excited about the clothes." Gail and I. who had personally hand- picked the dolls, we want everybody to feel about the dolls as we did. Clothes are what makes you feel that you're not a> poor as everybody else. And I know what that feels like. They love calculators. They love books. These children really do understand the importance of an education. They all know, they all know that it's their only way out.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Who did they think you were?
OPRAH WINFREY
They didn't know who 1 was. 1 was an American girl who had come to say. "this is your day. This is your party." They're like, "okay." I \\as backstage at one of these big tent events, and a little girl said to me. "so you live in America, ma'am, do you know Britney Spears'1" Do you know Britney Spears0 I go. "well. I kind of know of her." And she says, "do you live near her':1" 1 said "well, if you consider the United States near, yeah I do. Yeah. 1 do. We're kind of close." 1 know. 1 love that.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) What was it you most wanted them to take home'?
OPRAH WINFREY
1 most wanted them to hear what 1 felt from the nuns. 1 remembered you. 1 was thinking of you. And 1 came all thib way. across the ocean, to say. I Io\e you.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) And in this moment, something else had begun to happen. These children and the immensity of their need blasted its way into the crossroads where America's most famous television star had been standing, and started her on a whole new path.
OPRAH WINFREY
Everything in my life. 1 keep asking the question of "what does this mean?" 1 ha\e this show and 1 have this. What does this mean'1 It all came together for me in that first experience. Because I realized in that moment, in that moment, joy has a texture. Joy has a texture. You can really, if there's enough of it. you can feel it in the room. You can just feel it. 1 had a joy headache. I was like, so full from these children, from these children's joy. I was so filled and full that I was sick. 1 was sick with joy. I thought. I'm going to pass out. And I'm telling you. I said in that moment. "oka\ God. I iiet it. I net it." DIANE SAWYER
(Voice O\er) But what did she get'? And should she be doing it in America instead of Africa? Where was Oprah Winfrey heading next? When "Primetime" continues.
graphics: Primetime
commercial break
ANNOUNCER
"Oprah in Africa" continues.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Over the next two weeks, the white tent would go up and down 12 times. Oprah and her team covering 100 miles. And the word started spreading to children from wretched villages filled with the dying, that an American woman who'd once suffered in poverty loved them.
OPRAH WINFREY
And you get there in the morning and there would be 1.000 children lined up before dawn.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Did you worry that a lot of them might be children who weren't children in need?
OPRAH WINFREY
Oh. no. We didn't uorry about that at all because you were out in such a rural area, nobody has anything.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) The small faces with the big. excited eyes started yielding up their individual stories. Again. Oprah's private diary.
OPRAH WINFREY
1 knew that everyone had a story of hardship. Like this little girl, whose teacher brought her over to see our staff doctor. Under her homemade bandages, he found a severe case of scabies, a painful skin disease. We arranged for her lo get more treatment But we would later learn the little girl, like so many others, was also HIV positive.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) A little girl in the tent. And these little boys about to go to an orphanage, run by a woman named Heather Reynolds.
OPRAH WINFREY
These two, ages 8 and 10, just lost their mother to AIDS. Visiting their house for the last time, Heather helped them collect a few belongings before taking them to live at the orphanage.
OPRAH WINFREY You hear 11 million. 11 million doesn't mean any difference than 10 million to you. But 11 million would be if everyone of the children in New York and California under the age of 14 was left to raise themselves. They're just on the streets, living in shanties, stealing and prostituting and doing whatever they can to stay alive. And nobody ever gives them a sense of value, importance or. forget manners, just that you mean something in the world.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Another stud) from the African country of Zambia. 47 percent of child prostitutes are orphans. While others barelv survive on the streets, like this little bos.
ORPHAN, MALE
Go on the street and beg in traffic. There's a school I want to go to. But 1 was told 1 couldn't go now. There's no room for me. I miss my mother. I wish she hadn't died. And 1 know if she were alive my life would be better.
OPRAH WINFREY
Ten years from now the estimate is that there will be 45 million more people with AIDS. It means a world of utter chaos and children grown to adult rebellion against themselves, against their community, against their state, their country, and anybody else who's in the way.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) I think a lot of people here, though, think that there are villages to raise those children. That there are extended families that move in.
OPRAH WINFREY
There are some families who are already overextended. I have seen a family often share what they have with a family of eight. And. you know, sit there and trv to divide the parcels so that everybody could have something to eat.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) And there's very little free education in Africa. So. all the children forced to raise other children have no wav of earning a dime for education.
OPRAH WINFREY
15-year-old Thanda and her sister Kholisile were left to fend for themseKes after both their parents died of AIDS.
ORPHAN. FEMALE
My sister and I eat porridge or potatoes. Sometimes beans. But we never have enough. Granny comes sometimes but \\e usual!) are alone.
OPRAH WINFREY
The girls showed me the 2-room shack \\here the) live. They are vulnerable with no one to protect them. The> once returned home to find a drunken man in their bed. How long have you been taking care of > our sister? Since your mother died?
ORPHAN
Since last year.
OPRAH WINFREY There is a moment where I ask Thanda "is there anything I can do for you? Is there anything that you want?" She said "a uniform." A uniform? You want a uniform? You don't want a bed0 You don't want a heater? You don't want electricity? You want a uniform? She said, "a uniform, so that I can go to school, ma'am." And a uniform costs about six American dollars. And you can't, you're not allowed to go to school without one. And many families have to choose between food, less food, and do I earn the money for my child to have a uniform';' 1 see myself in their eyes and feel myself in their hearts but 1 came from that.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Barefoot, as she was. In poverty. But it raises a question, why doesn't she simply take on the poor children here at home? Why those faces?
OPRAH WINFREY
It's very different being poor and being hungry and being without hope than being poor, hungry without hope, and motherless.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) You realK believe that poverty, abject poverty in this country ...
OPRAH WINFREY
Oh. it's very different. Oh. very different. Oh. very different. Because in this country, you still have the opportunity This is the greatest country in the world. And voti do have the opportunity. In this country, it is against the law to leave voting children taking care ofyoung children. In this country, if you're not in school, somebody is eventually gonna come knocking on your door and say. here's a school a vou'd better get in it. In this country, opportunity exists for. not onl> progress, but for unlimited success. And I know that there would be people who would say "well, what about this country'1" Oh. it ... then go, go see for yourself. It is an entirely different world. When you're sitting in a hut with a bowl and that is your number one possession and only possession. Now. what is interesting. I was so haunted by Thanda. haunted. I mean, when we left that place and I'd asked her. you know, "what can I do for you." and she said "a uniform," and 1 asked her about her dreams and she said she wanted to be a doctor. I went back to my lovely hotel and 1 couldn't stop thinking about her because was raining that night. And. I thought about the rain pouring in because. vou know, basically there was no roof. And I thought, "where are thev in that hut? Where are they? How are they even staving dry?"
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) But she saw. give a child an opportunity, even a small one. and everything can change.
OPRAH WINFREY
So I found a. an orphanage home that would take her in. her and her sister. So. I am sponsoring her now. And I just saw her last week. And she is a complete!;, different person.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Winfrey says, from her hair to her pride, to the way she's thriving in school.
OPRAH WINFREY
When you see those children and what they've had to endure and overcome. And there still is this huge liaht.
ANNOUNCER Esona's story. A little girl who changed Oprah's life forever.
OPRAH WINFREY
We're in the hospital. And she goes to hug me. I can still feel that.
ANNOUNCER
The girl she would call her own. when "Oprah in Africa" returns.
commercial break
graphics: Oprah in Africa
OPRAH WINFREY
Esona is a only child. A sweet and gentle 9-year-old. But just a few years ago. she began to wonder if her ailing mother might have AIDS.
ESONA. 0 YEAR OLD
I asked im mother, "do \ou hase AIDS'1" And im mother said, "yes, 1 do ha\e AIDS." I cried. And then. the\ come and take my mother to hospital. My mother tell me. I must not tell anyone what was she have. And I said. I \\on't it'll anyone.
OPRAH WINFREY
1 have to say that Esona is. for me. the defining moment about what being an AIDS orphan is all about. Here's just a little girl who had come to our party and at first was ver\ shy about it. So. what 1 said to m\ staff when we went there, that every child that \ou come in contact with. \ou must have personal contact and have a moment with that child, to let them know that they matter. 1 would walk through the lines daily and listen to. you know, other staff members sa\ iim. "you're just the loveliest girl. I love your eyes. And 1 hope you have the happiest Christmas of your life."
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Another small gift given by someone who never forgot when she was a sad 8-\ear-old. And a fanc> woman said this to her.
OPRAH WINFREY
"You are as prettv as a speckled pup." She sa\s to me. "you're as pretty as a speckled pup." Now. I didn't know \\liat the speckled pup was. And she said, sou have such beautiful, bee-stung lips. Now. 1 didn't know what a bee-sturm lip was. 1 knew that 1 had big lips. But 1 remember going home at eight years old. after church, staring at m\self in the mirror because Tish Hooker, who was a prettv lad\. had said to me that 1 was pretty.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) That little girl. Esona. had a mirror, too.
OPRAH WINFREY
There's a little cracked mirror that she's looking at herself. That's her only mirror in the whole house.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) But the mirror was not the onlv crack in her life. OPRAH WINFREY
Your mother is in the clinic. Do you think, you were saying to me that \ou think \our mother is going to come home' Do NOLI think she's going to get better?
ESONA
I don't know.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) In the cnr. when you're driving along, and \ou ask if her mom will be okay.
OPRAH WINFREY
That was one of the most truthful moments. When I asked her. do you think \our mother will be all right0 There's a moment where she hesitates. And I can feel her. I can feel her trying to decide, do I give you the party line? Do I gi\ e you what I think you uant to hear'1 Or do 1 really tell you the truth? So. that was a powerful moment. Because. 1 think. e\en for her. because nobod\ discusses it. Not her grandmother, not her cousins. Nobody ever says the AIDS \sord. So. for her. that was a moment of clarification.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Oprah takes Esona to the hospital to see her mother who. b\ the way, is just 29 years old. There is no public health service to provide this hospital with any drugs.
OPRAH WINFREY
Hello. I'm Oprah. Hello. Can I ask you a question? So. \ou know you have aids, right'1
ESONA'S MOTHER. FEMALE
Yes.
OPRAH WINFREY
Hou did sou get it? Do \ou know?
ESONA'S MOTHER
I was having a miscarriage. The\ tell me to take the blood for HIV.
OPRAH WINFREY
So, were you able to get treatment for the AIDS? She's not being treated for AIDS? You know she has HIV. But the public policy doesn't allow you to treat her for HIV? You don't have the drugs. You don't have the drugs. It makes no sense to me.
OPRAH WINFREY
1 said, "what are you treating her for?" And they said, diarrhea. You're treating her for diarrhea? Yes. we're treating her for diarrhea. And she has some cramping in her legs. So -you're giving her cramping medicine and you're giving her medicine for diarrhea, when you know she has AIDS?
OPRAH WINFREY You have a really strong spirit. I can see your spirit is strong.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Esona puts the photo taken at the white tent by her mother's side. Last March, she buried her. Oprah decided to sponsor Esona for life. too.
OPRAH WINFREY
There's that moment where we're in the hospital and she goes to hug me. I can still feel that. Once vou've seen it. I think, and felt it and experienced it. you cannot pretend that you didn't. And so, 1 think, to ignore it or to be in denial about it. or to act as though, oh. that's those people and that's their country1. I would be judged for that. In the final hour. 1 would be judged for that. The world has no idea of what is to come if we do not do something now.
ANNOUNCER
A little boy's triumph against impossible odds.
ANNOUNCER
Next on this "Primetime" special.
commercial break
graphics: Oprah in Africa
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) As we continue, now. with Oprah Winfrey, something to keep in mind. In the United States, more than 66 percent of the people who have HIV get treatment for AIDS. But in Africa, where more than 30 million people are infected, only 2 percent will get access to the drugs that can make all the difference.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Making a difference with a tent is not always predictable. A storm blows up. Thank Heaven most of the children had left just minutes before.
OPRAH WINFREY
All of us feel blessed to ha\e not only survived this experience, but to come through it strengthened with a "renter realization of how quickK. how short. ho\\ exacting life can be. We thank \oti.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) But the sun comes out. And the traveling mission resumes.
OPRAH WINFREY
Our journey took us through Kwazulu Natal, a region where one in three people are infected with HIV. As adults die of AIDS in the huts and tin\ shacks that dot the countryside here, their children are often left behind to survive on their own. We visited one of the region's few orphanages "Gods Golden Acre." Heather Reynolds rescues children have no place else go.
OPRAH WINFREY How many children do you have here0
HEATHER REYNOLDS. ORPHANAGE OPERATOR
72.
OPRAH WINFREY
72 children reside on ground here?
HEATHER REYNOLDS
Most of the little children you see here have been so sick. But it's not a place of sadness. You look at them all and they've all got stories. The girls that have been raped. The girls that have been abused, from the most traumatic backgrounds.
OPRAH WINFREY
When 1 visited the nursery I was just overwhelmed to see so many sick babies. Here, they often care for 10 or 12 at a time, many stricken with AIDS.
HEATHER REYNOLDS
Little Marcus came to us. He was HIV positive. He about 7 months, nobody gave him much chance to survive. And he was so thin and it took months and months.
OPRAH WINFREY
Heather explained how Marcus was treated with an anti-retroviral for months. And when he was tested again, to everyone's amazement, he tested negative for HIV. You are little victory boy. You are a winner. You are a winner. That is an amazing story.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) As all of us in the US know, the new generation of drugs can prevent transmission of AIDS from mother to child in 50 percent of the cases. But it doesn't happen in Africa, because apart from the money, there's so little education, so much stigma.
OPRAH WINFREY
Because people are so shamed by it, they're willing to die from it, because the shame is so great. Because you are abandoned by your family. The moment you tell your husband that you have the disease, even though he's probably the one that gave it to you. he abandons you.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) So much cultural and government resistance on the topic. Though President Clinton and Bill Gates have been working to persuade governments in Africa and drug companies to begin dropping prices for dru^s on the continent.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) I guess a lot of Americans would say, hey. their governments are creating this problem.
OPRAH WINFREY You know, we know of many cases throughout the world where the governments haven't done what we felt was necessan to benefit the people. But we know how to make a difference in people's lives.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) You're really not tempted to go and just lobby government officials0
OPRAH WINFREY
Well. 1 think it eventually will come to that. But in the meantime, in the meantime. I'm just one person doing what 1 can. I'm one person with a great big life, who has a lot of access.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) She's asked the South African press to try to help break some of the myths. One of them we heard, that some African men believe sex \\ith a virgin will cure AIDS.
OPRAH WINFREY
The myth is there and the myth continues to spread because there isn't enough information. There isn't enough real education about what is the truth about AIDS. I visited one of the orphanages there where a young girl, ever\ time she went to fetch water, was raped. And when she came to the orphanage, one of the first things she asked the head of the orphanage there was. "ma'am, please don't make me fetch water."
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) And there was another child who came into Oprah's life, one struggling on the streets.
OPRAH WINFREY
This girl, wanting help from no one. struggled up a long dirt path with her food parcel. She lived in a tiny shack, the ualls covered in cardboard to keep out the cold. But when she began unpacking her gifts, we knew we'd made a small difference in her life.
ORPHAN
This is the most beautiful outfit 1 have ever had. I'm so luck\.
OPRAH WINFREY
And she's silting in the room wiih the -with the doll and saving, "this is the best dav I've ever had. These are the best clothes I've ever had." And watching her in that moment. I thought, if this child can find jov in this moment in these circumstances, then 1 think that im self and the rest of the world needs to know that we have absolutely nothinu to ever complain about.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Didn't she say. "I'm so lucky"0
OPRAH WINFREY
Yes. She said, she said. "I'm so luckv."
ANNOUNCER
What Oprah realizes about not having children of her own. OPRAH WINFREY
It is more than a notion being a parent, i do not have he greatest of mothering instincts. 1 would have to sa>.
ANNOUNCER
When this "Primetime" special continues.
commercial break
ANNOUNCER
"Oprah in Africa." continues.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) So. what is the answer? It wouldn't be like Oprah Winfrey to present a problem without some sense of n solution. As you see all the time on her show when she reaches out to American women. But a note, in so many countries in Africa, women ha\e few legal rights to property, to the promise of their own future. So. Winfrey started thinking about an answer that comes straight from her own childhood.
OPRAH WINFREY
I grew up like many of you. many of you. No running water, no electricity as a little girl. You can overcome poverty and despair in your life with an education. 1 am living proof of that.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) By the final mile, 50.000 children have had a Christmas day of joy.
OPRAH WINFREY
So. I thought, well, what can I do? So, for me, education has been the road to success. To me, education is freedom. And I believe the future of this country of Africa will depend upon the leadership of its women. And that's just not a feminist rhetoric. It really is the truth, as I see it. And as do a lot of the other leaders of Africa see it. When you're dri\ ing out in the morning, it's the women who are going to get the water to bake the morning's porridge. It's the women who have to gather the wood to heat the water. It's the women who farm the fields. In my lifetime, we're not gonna change the patriarchal system there. But you can. I have seen where you just -just the slightest word of encouragement empowers women. The very idea that you can take care of yourself.
OPRAH WINFREY
This little girl came here when it was discovered that she'd been abused repeated by neighbors. Her name is Kandisile. And her teachers say she is one of the brightest.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) UN1CEF, in fact, has released a report saying the education of girls will be the most effective tool for raising productivity in Africa.
OPRAH WINFREY
I went to shanty schools where 600 children are crowded into a box car and offered to pay for the teachers, because the teachers many times don't get paid. So I thought, if I could guarantee their salaries for a period of time, three years. which I've agreed to do. to see how that works. Then at least you will create some stabilit) in that little communit) of teachers knowing that they're going to be paid.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) With her foundation she's earmarking a full-scale program to build schools for girls throughout Africa, starting with a S10 million leadership academy for 450 of them in South Africa. Scheduled to open in 2006. When she went to Zambia recently, she knew she had to stay focused.
OPRAH WINFREY
You can't do ever, thing, otherwise you become totally overwhelmed. You can become so overwhelmed that \ou end up doing nothing. So. I cannot take on the thousands of children.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) But where do you draw the limit personally?
OPRAH WINFREY
Oka\. personally, 1 can do a lot. And I have a lot. But I don't have -enough to save the children of Africa. You know. Gail was saying, well, 1 don't know I think you can use your... 1 go, 1 do not have that much money, okay1 So I'm going to use my voice to extend into the world to those children who can't, who can't speak for themselves.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice Over) Meanwhile, everyone's saying back in the States, that this season. Winfrey's show has a new kind of exuberance, a new kind of jo>.
OPRAH WINFREY
1 feel like I'm kind of grown now. I'm gonna be turning the big 5-0 next year. 1 really finally do feel grown-up. 1 feel like I've got that. And I feel like the message of people being able to triumph in their lives is a message that we can earn through many themes.
DIANE SAWYER
(Voice O\er) And she sa\s. ma\be this is win she never luid a conventional marriage and never had children. Thai these are the children waiting for her. At one point, she sa\s. she even thought of bringing the children she sponsors home.
OPRAH WINFREY
M\ original plan was that I was gonna bring them back this Christmas. We'd all mo\e in. Yeah, we'd all move into nu house. And just, just a week ago. I changed nn mind about that.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Wh\ aren't you ready to take on the responsibility of raising them yourself?
OPRAH WINFREY
Well, because I think, as I've always said, that it is more than a notion being a parent.
DIANE SAWYER (Voice Over) She laughs at herself, saying she imagined their daih needs and what real mothers do.
OPRAH WINFREY
1 do not have the greatest of mothering instincts, 1 would have to say. What 1 do have is an ability to affect, on a broader scale, a number of children in a way that I think can be impactful. But I thought, okay, that was a good decision. That was a good decision.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) But what do \ou do with what you've seen and the guilt?
OPRAH WINFREY
Guilt? I don't have guilt.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) But how do you go back to the tile and the house?
OPRAH WINFREY
Oh.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) And everyday just knowing you could, this could be your entire life, every minute, everyday.
OPRAH WINFREY
No. because you do what you can.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) So. Mother Teresa's one thing.
OPRAH WINFREY
Yeah. I am not Mother Teresa. I'm not Mother Teresa, nor do I wish to be. I think that what she did was extraordinary for her. That is what she can do. what she did. And I'm going to do what I can.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) So \\hat will \our Christmas be like0
OPRAH WINFREY
Well. I will tell \ou that I finally do get to move in with the tile. This year. I'm moving in with the tile. I came back early so that I could complete uhat I started last year. But my Christmas will be. I will spend. Stedman and I will spend a realK quiet Christmas. We don't exchange gifts, because we have everything. And I will call my children. 1 call them my children. I will call all of my children in Africa that day. And would have made sure that they had a uood Christmas.
DIANE SAWYER (Off Camera) So. to the person who asks you. "what's a one-word sentence for what you are doing in Africa0" What do you sa\n
OPRAH WINFREY
No person has asked me that.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Okay.
OPRAH WINFREY
Okay.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) What are you doing in Africa?
OPRAH WINFREY
Well, in Africa. I am trying to create a sense of inspiration and aspiration to a life that is better. In the United States. I am tr\ ing to raise the consciousness of Americans so that we under how difficult life is. so that we can help life to be better.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Because we owe it0 Because1?
OPRAH WINFREY
Because it is necessary. And because we are human beings living on the planet uith other human bein«s. I think that whenever any of us extends ourself in kindness to another person, that that kindness leaves a heart print. And depending on the level of sincerity and the depth of that kindness, that heart print can last forever.
ANNOUNCER
This "Primetime" special edition. "Oprah in Africa" will continue.
commercial break
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) Somebody said, the future has to belong to those who believe in the beaut}1 of their dreams. And if you want more information on how you can help the AIDS orphans of Africa, go to our web-site, at abcnews.com. And of course, you can see more of Oprah's incredible journey on her own show, coming Monday, December 22nd. That's it for us tonight. Charlie and I will be back with an all-new "Primetime" tomorrow night. Until then, as they like they like to say in Africa, be safe, go well.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December IS. 2003