Oprah Winfrey may visit Guyana by year-end

United States (U.S.) Ambassador to Guyana D Brendt Hardt said his office will do everything possible to bring veteran journalist and media network owner Oprah Winfrey to Guyana before the end of 2013.
Hardt said Winfrey has been a true example of the American spirit, supporting development, and made the promise following comments from the head of St Francis Community Developers Alex Foster, who praised the work of the media icon.
Foster has been engaged in community work and empowering of young people for the past 20 years. The once Guyana Youth of the Year award winner and one of the 50 most influential young people in the world, has been planning for years to bring Winfrey to Guyana to get a firsthand look at his youth empowerment project.
The St Francis Community Developers has in excess of 20 projects throughout Region Six.
Oprah began her broadcasting career at WVOL radio in Nashville while still in high school. At the age of 19, she became the youngest person and the first African-American woman to anchor the news at Nashville’s WTVF-TV.
In 1984, Oprah moved to Chicago to host WLS- TV’s morning talk show, ‘AM Chicago’, which became the number one local talk show – surpassing ratings for ‘Donahue’ – just one month after she began. In less than a year, the show expanded to one hour and was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. It entered national syndication in 1986, becoming the highest-rated talk show in television history.
In 1988, she established ‘Harpo Studios’, making her the third woman in the American entertainment industry to own her own studio. In 2008, Oprah announced plans to create Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a multiplatform media venture designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live up to their full potential.
OWN debuted on January 1, 2011.
Through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, she has awarded hundreds of grants to organisations that support the education and empowerment of women, children and families in the United States and around the world. Among her various philanthropic contributions, she has donated millions of dollars toward providing a better education for students who have merit, but no means. She also created “The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Programme”, which gives scholarships to students determined to use their education to give back to their communities in the United States and abroad.
In December 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation expanded its global humanitarian efforts with her “Christmas Kindness South Africa 2002” initiative that included visits to orphanages and rural schools in South Africa, where 50,000 children received gifts of food, clothing, athletic shoes, school supplies, books and toys.
During a December 2000 visit with former South African President Nelson Mandela, Oprah pledged to build a school in South Africa. As that commitment broadened, she established The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, to which she has contributed more than US$ 40 million toward the creation of the ‘Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls – South Africa’, which opened in January 2007 and now serves grades seven through 12.