Mrs United Nations South Africa is a national competition that gives married women a platform to make a difference in their communities, charities and families. Its founder, together with four Mrs UN Alumni, have come on board this year as Spar Women’s Challenge brand ambassadors as a way of showing South African women that if you believe in change, anything can happen. We caught up with some of these phenomenal ladies to dig deeper into their reasons for supporting the race. Zanti Swanepoel is the director of Mrs United Nations Africa and, in addition to coming on board as an ambassador herself, she provided the link between Spar and the Mrs UN representatives who also came on board to support this year’s race. She believes that events such as this have the power to create tangible change. “Mrs UN stands for the empowering of women to make a difference in this country. We cannot wait for anyone else to do that and so we as women take the responsibility to make a difference and I believe that if you change a woman, you change a family. And if you change a family, you change a community – and if you change a community, you can change a nation,” said Zantie. Martha Nkele ‘Soso’ Thamae is a loving wife, mother of three, an entrepreneur, breast cancer survivor and a national finalist for Mrs United Nations South Africa 2013/2014. She is extensively involved in charitable community work, but is especially committed to her work with the Breast Health Foundation after the overwhelming support she received from them when diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 – the foundation is playing a major part in the SPAR Women’s Challenge focus for this year. “Since my diagnosis and by taking part in Mrs UN I gave realised that we as women play a very important role in society, therefore we should be embraced and celebrated and by this event, I feel inspired. For this, I applaud Spar for empowering the nation with the SPAR Women’s Challenge, because in doing so they are empowering women,” said Soso, as she chats about what the race represents to the women of South Africa. Londiwe Moyane is a 2013 Mrs UN finalist and founder of Smiles, her project in Pretoria. She also founded Mpuma Jobz, a Facebook page and community initiative that she started single-handedly and without outside financial assistance. “I’m doing it out of love for the people of South Africa,” she said, before adding that this would be her first SPAR Women’s Challenge race and that she is looking forward to running side by side with the ladies she is representing as a brand ambassador.