Woman of the Year 2005 finalists
29 July 2005
The youngest finalist in the Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year Award 2005, 10-year-old Chaeli Mycroft, was just a few months old when the awards were first held in 1995.
This year's finalists also include the two women who created the internationally successful stage show Umoja, a paleaobiologist, and the creator of the Girls Education Movement.
South Africans were invited to take part in the search by nominating the country's best in seven categories: arts, culture and communications; business entrepreneurs; education; health; science and technology; social welfare; and sport.
Past winners of the competition have served as role models for others to emulate and have, without exception, made major contributions to the country's pressing national issues.
THE 2005 FINALISTS:
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
 Professor Sarah Howie is a nationally rated social scientist who is concerned with the teaching and learning of her field. She uses scientific methods to tackle a largely social problem, the teaching of maths and science in SA's schools.
 Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan is an outstanding scientist who has earned international acclaim as a professor of palaeobiology. Her role within high-ranking bodies in science has assisted her in raising the profile of women in science and contributed significantly towards the development of research capacity in South Africa.
 Dr Photini Kiepiela's work in KwaZulu-Natal has made a difference to HIV/Aids research both locally and internationally. She started the HIV
Pathogenesis Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and has grown the unit into a highly successful research operation in just four years.
BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS
 Erin Limbert and Maeve O'Donoghue, sisters and owners of the uniquely South African Mangwanani Private African Day Spa in the Hennops River Valley, have revolutionised both the health spa industry and the lives of over 120 women.
 Malebo Ledwaba, owner of Glitter Chemicals Toilet Paper Manufacturers in Polokwane, responded to the urgent need for affordable sanitation in the community in which she worked by starting her own detergent manufacturing business, and instituting the Sanitation Project in rural Limpopo, a project that sees poor, rural communities and
schools gain access to clean water and hygienic toilet facilities.
 Thamsanqa Zimu, from Umzinto in KwaZulu-Natal, challenges the male-dominated farming fraternity by successfully supplying her agricultural products to the highly competitive sugar and timber industries, while always maintaining high levels of farm worker skills on her farms, where over 50% of her employees are women.
HEALTH
 Dr Grace Sangoni's dedication to her calling as a medical doctor has brought about change in the health of communities as far afield as Umtata, Klerksdorp and East London, where the Margaret Clinics oversee women's health issues. Dr Sangoni founded the clinics in order to provide a holistic approach to health for women.
 Dr Carol-Ann Benn is one of South Africa's most prominent breast specialist surgeons. She is the founder of The Breast Health Foundation and Netcare Breast Care Centre of Excellence at Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital, which recommends and provides specialist breast care and disease management to all South African women irrespective of medial aid status. She is also head of the Helen Joseph, the Chris Hani Baragwanath and the Johannesburg General Hospital Breast Clinics.
 Fiona MacDonald's dedication to nursing care has made a difference in 108 villages in the Limpopo province. Her approach to health care is completely committed to making a difference in the area of HIV/Aids. MacDonald's forward thinking is based on the ripple effect: how the impact of training one person can reach so many
others within the rural communities of Limpopo.
SOCIAL WELFARE
 Beka Ntsanwisi has been nominated as a finalist in the Woman of the Year Award for the second year running. A radio presenter at the Munghana Lonene radio station in Polokwane, despite suffering from advanced colon cancer, Ntsanwisi chooses to make a difference in the lives of thousands of community members, and most people in the area refer to her as Limpopo's Mother Theresa.
 Jacqueline Maarohanye, the Angel of Soweto, has had an empowering impact on 6 850 children who were faced with desperation and no future. She founded the Ithuteng Trust, an extra curricular school and youth empowerment programme for at-risk youth in Soweto, which provides peer tutoring and counselling and
has resulted in a 100% matric pass rate for the past six years. The project has recently received a R7.6-million donation from Oprah Winfrey, who lauded its virtues on a recent visit to South Africa.
 Chaeli Mycroft is the youngest ever finalist in the Woman of the Year Award. Just 10 years old, Mycroft founded the Chaeli Campaign with her sister and three young friends in order to create awareness of, and meet the mobility and educational needs of, disabled children. The young Capetonian has shown remarkable courage and leadership in spite of her youth and disability.
EDUCATION
 Jane Evans, a former editor of the women's pages at the Rand Daily Mail, has spent almost 30 years dedicated to developing a national network of Early Childhood Development
agencies. Originally from Johannesburg, Evans is the founder of the Ntataise Trust ("lead a child by the hand"), an NGO that enables women with very little education to obtain qualifications as pre-school teachers.
 Violet Madingoane's contribution to the field of information technology has had a far-reaching impact on South Africa's education system. Not only has she been strategic in implementing computer training courses and centres at many schools, but the Department of Education also credits Madingoane with being responsible for the original design of Gauteng Online, an Information Communication Technology project included in the current Gauteng schools curriculum.
 Mmabatho Ramagoshi from Pretoria is the director for Gender Equity in the Department of Education. She is
also creator of the Girls Education Movement in South Africa, an African-based, child-centred, child-led movement that aims to bring positive changes to the lives of South African schoolgirls and boys.
ART, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONS
 Julia Moloi, founder of We Are Capable, has overcome her own disability to become the first editor of a magazine for people with disabilities. Aiming to promote and highlight the plight, struggles and triumphs of people with disabilities, Johannesburg-based We Are Capable offers a voice and platform whereby those with disabilities can be heard.
 Linzi Thomas is the founder and director of the MyLife Project, which meets the needs of youth and children living on the streets through a mentorship and empowerment process that
uses role models and leaders who encourage the youth to discover their passion, nurture their talents and find a way forward in their lives.
 Thembi Nyandeni and Todd Twala have put South African music on the world's stages with the internationally successful Umoja, a multi award-winning production that has won accolades for costume design and musical production. For years Nyandeni and Twala toured the world with the internationally successful Ipi Ntombi, and it was during breaks from the show that they started putting together their own dance pieces that would eventually form Umoja.
SPORTS
 Lesley Copeman and Tania Fourie have used their lifelong passion for women's golf to create a
tournament that brought together the world's biggest names in women's golf at the Women's World Cup of Golf in 2004. At the same time they managed the SAA Champagne Golf clinics and the Acer Girls Golf Programme, projects aimed at developing the sport for women in the country.
 Juliet Miyabo's efforts to introduce roller sports to township children through the Jema Skaters Club have given hundreds of potential sports stars access to both professional roller skating training and educational support. Miyabo saw a need for organised and structured sports and recreational activities in the townships, and in 2003 privately funded the first of the Jema Skate Clubs in Klipspruit, a venture which has since grown to include clubs in Soweto, Alexandra, Orange Farm, Carl Sithole Centre and the Berea and Hillbrow area.
 Elna McIntosh is a TV and Radio presenter, professor and well-known sexologist. She has achieved numerous sporting accolades, completing the Comrades Marathon seven times, the Dusi, Breede and Fish River Canoe Marathons, and the Iron Woman. McIntosh's stalwart dedication to the expansion of canoeing in South Africa's disadvantaged communities has seen her pave the way for scores of paddlers to achieve success in a previously inaccessible sport.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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