Edenvale author drives social impact across Africa
Author and social entrepreneur Barbara Lawrence-Strydom, known as AuntyB, is reshaping how Africa is seen through literacy, leadership development and community impact initiatives across the continent.
A woman of many talents with a big heart, and an Edenvale resident, shared how her work lives where storytelling, literacy, travel, and social impact meet.
Barbara Lawrence-Strydom, fondly known as ‘AuntyB’, is an author, social entrepreneur, and founder of The Africa I SEE Foundation, patron of the Engage and Empower Foundation in Ekurhuleni and the creator of the
MasterDreamer Stewardship Lab, which supports leadership and social impact initiatives across Africa.
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“Through books, capacity building, mentoring, coaching and community programmes, I use words and lived journeys to reshape how Africa is seen and experienced,” shared Barbara.
Her professional journey transformed from a seat in banking to a seat in the environmental, social and governance space.
Barbara attributed this shift to her late husband, Shirleigh Strydom, who was an environmental scientist and a pioneer in waste management studies in the 1980s. Strydom, who was deputy head of the CoE’s Department of Waste, passed on in 2018.
In 2025, Barbara was honoured with the Social Impact Leadership and Cultural Storytelling Award in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, recognising this blend of stewardship, cultural storytelling and continental impact.
Barbara acknowledges that her commitment to the continent of Africa was born through her own personal journey.
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Starting in 2016, she trained various organisations in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Ghana, and Sierra Leone.
She said, “For you to get into that space, even if you’re training one individual, you need to understand the full legal framework from the Constitution of the country.”
Barbara acknowledged that, through that space, she was afforded the opportunity to travel across the African continent, partly as a volunteer. Barbara drove from the southernmost tip of Africa to the Pyramids of Giza on two different road trips and is about to finish the last leg of her thirteen-country tour of the continent. It was after this trip that ‘AuntyB’ launched the Africa I SEE Foundation.
The core value of the foundation is to ‘litrify’ by creating the magic where learning, unlearning and relearning lead to growth, agency and vision.
Its vision states, “We exist to move vision beyond imagination – into agency, authorship, and lived action. By shifting perspective, we unlock the courage to see differently, choose consciously, and rebuild intentionally.”
The Africa I see Stewardship Toolkit Lab for youth is designed to empower young Africans to build their future with identity, literacy, culture and ecology.
It shapes:
• Skills development
• Literacy and communication
• Environmental responsibility
• Entrepreneurship.
The MasterDreamer Stewardship Lab seeks to grow visionary leaders into transformational stewards through reflective leadership, purposeful vision, responsible stewardship and collaborative action.
AuntyB has Community Swap Libraries installed in parks, villages and schools, with one in Dowerglen. The idea is to bring books to where children play, learn and dream.
Books authored by Barbara include Waste Knot – Keep Africa Clean, Seed is Life and The Power of Hemp.
