Andreas Strüngmann and his South African-born wife Sue live in Southern Germany, just outside Munich, although they spend part of each year in Cape Town. They have two adult children, Nicole and Florian. The family enjoys traveling together, sailing, playing tennis and golf in the summertime and skiing in winter.
Andreas originally came to South Africa as a medical intern, after studying in Freiburg and Munich. At that time, he and Sue worked together in Tsolo, in the Eastern Cape, where they were struck by the lack of resources in both the hospital and the school where Sue was working. “There wasn’t enough medicine and there weren’t even pens and pencils available to learners. We made a promise to each other that if we were ever successful enough, we would do our part to help young people in this country get a good education”, remembers Sue.
Andreas went on to work as a GP in South Africa and then, in 1978, entered the family pharmaceutical business in Germany.
In 2007, the two established the Andreas and Susan Strüngmann Foundation to sponsor educational initiatives, currently focused in the Western Cape. The Foundation has undertaken three key initiatives to date: The Sue Strüngmann Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Students for a Better Future® High School Scholarship Programme and the construction of Disa Primary School in Imizamo Yethu (opened January 2012) which offers excellent educational facilities to the children of Hout Bay.
Disa Primary is a school of excellence and it allows children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to reach their full potential and to become the best they can be.