From poverty to billionaire: Oprah Winfrey's lessons for vulnerable Kenyan schoolgirls

That girl is Oprah Winfrey. Many people misspell her name as Orphra Winsley, but her real name is Oprah Gail Winfrey, born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in the United States of America, to a teenage single mother living in poverty.

Oprah's childhood mirrors the pain of many disadvantaged Kenyan girls. She was raised by her grandmother on a farm, wearing dresses stitched from potato sacks and mocked by other children for her poverty. Later, while living with her mother in Milwaukee, she was sexually abused by male relatives and family friends during her childhood. At fourteen, she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy who died shortly after birth.

She could have dropped out and disappeared into the streets. She did not.

Her life changed when she moved to live with her father in Nashville. He was strict and demanded that she take education seriously. He required her to read books and write reports. That discipline became her escape. She excelled in school, developed her public speaking abilities and earned a scholarship to Tennessee State University to study communication. She began her career in radio as a teenager. Despite setbacks in television, she went on to host *The Oprah Winfrey Show*, which entered national syndication in 1986 and ran for 25 seasons. She built her own company, Harpo Productions, and television network, OWN, becoming one of the world's most successful media entrepreneurs and the first Black woman to become a billionaire. She also established the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa to support academically talented girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.

For the Kenyan teenage girl in Migori, Kitui, Kilifi, Nakuru, Korogocho in Nairobi and across the country who has lost hope, Oprah's story is proof that your current address is not your final destination. Poverty is not your identity. Dropping out of school for commercial sex is not a solution. It can expose you to exploitation and further hardship.

That quick money can come with a heavy cost. Sexual exploitation exposes girls to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, early and unwanted pregnancy, physical violence, depression and loss of self-esteem. Education is an investment in your future that nobody can take away from you. Your body is not your only capital. Your mind is.

Help still exists for girls who want to stay in school. County bursaries, education scholarships, church sponsorships and assistance through local administrators and other support organisations may offer opportunities for the girl who says, "I want to remain in class." Form sisterhoods, share sanitary towels and books, and start small income-generating projects like soap-making and vegetable gardening where practical and safe.

This article also shines a light on the adults who lure vulnerable minors into sexual exploitation that ruins their lives. Reports from our villages and estates reveal a painful reality: some perpetrators are men old enough to be fathers and grandfathers to these adolescents. They have daughters and granddaughters at home, yet they target girls along school paths in the morning and evening, in market centres and around video halls.

They exploit hunger with promises of chips, soda, smartphones and school fees. They know the girl is vulnerable and use her vulnerability as a net. This is not love. It is exploitation, and sexual activity with a child can constitute a serious criminal offence. Under Kenya's Sexual Offences Act, defilement of a child under eighteen attracts severe penalties, with the applicable sentence depending on the child's age and the circumstances of the offence.

To you, the man doing this, we ask: where is your human heart? If you cannot pay her school fees, at least do not destroy her future. You are eating the seed before it becomes a tree. You are destroying the dreams of a future teacher, nurse, chief or journalist.

Oprah Winfrey's enduring message remains: "Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."