By: Natasha Archary
Media mogul, philanthropist, and now best-selling author, Oprah Winfrey presented a talk in Midrand, Johannesburg on Friday, where she asked, “What happened to you?”
The title of the talk-show queen’s book with brain development trauma expert, Dr Bruce Perry formed the overarching theme of Oprah’s discussion with her Leadership Academy for Girls.
Oprah hosted the one-day conference at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, aimed at teachers and counsellors to gain insight into how trauma can affect education and learning.
The conference themed, What happened to you: Understanding the impact of trauma on learning, teaching and psychological functioning, touched on the lasting effects childhood trauma can have on childhood development.
Oprah, who’s shared multiple times about her own personal trauma, from being raped repeatedly for years as a young girl, said it’s important for educators and anyone working with children in academics to start their journey by asking a very simple, but important question, “What happened to you?”
“We were talking about how to overcome poverty, and I said, I believe education is the way. I also told Mandela, I believe women would be the ones to do it.
When you take a trauma-informed approach to leadership, to education, and seeing the whole person in an effort to make them whole, that becomes your legacy.”
Through her leadership academy, aimed at giving underprivileged young girls a better education, Oprah said she believed education was enough to give young women a leg up in life.
Unfortunately, she learned that trauma from their difficult childhood was holding many back from reaching their true potential.
“During the first week, the girls were reacting in a strange way to me. Bruce said, ‘it’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For a long time, I’d associated PTSD with war, so I found this surprising. His response was, ‘poverty is war,’ I thought education was enough, that was my mistake, and a huge learning curve.”
Oprah says it’s always been her goal to help people get to their better, if not best life and she continues to put in her efforts at her South African-based academy.
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