Maria is an entrepreneur and an advocate for social development and transformation in the tourism industry. Originally from Sweden, Maria’s academic journey led her to explore media and social development in South Africa. Maria joined forces with Lebo in 2007 when she permanently relocated to South Africa. As life and business partners Lebo and Maria started a journey together of building and expanding Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers with the vision of using tourism as a tool of community development and transformation. As a business Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers has since its inception been involved in various community initiatives including various greening projects and the clean-up of dump sites turning them into a community park and vegetable gardens.