Noëlla Coursaris Musunka, a Congolese/Cypriot philanthropist and international model, is the Founder and CEO of Malaika, a grassroots nonprofit that educates and empowers girls and communities in her home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo through a school, a community centre, and a comprehensive clean water programme. A unique and fearless spokesperson, and the face of leading beauty and fashion campaigns across the globe, Noëlla is a voice for the power of girls’ education worldwide. Founded in 2007, Malaika’s education and health programmes are today impacting thousands of lives and are all offered free of charge. Crucially, Malaika acts as a local model that can be replicated on a global level. Noëlla has shared her insight at a number of world-class forums from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the university halls of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and MIT. In 2017, Noëlla was named one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential & Inspirational Women of the Year, and in 2018, she received an award at the 100 Years of Mandela celebration. She is also an Advisor at Concordia and an Ambassador for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
In this interview, Noëlla Coursaris Musunka covers educating the girl-child, and the resilience of local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Can you share your background with us and how it shaped what you do now?
I was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and when I was just five years old my father passed away suddenly. My mother could not afford to keep me so she sent me to live with relatives in Europe. I had a difficult childhood but resolved to work hard and make the most of the chances I had been given. At the age of 18, I returned to Congo and saw my mother for the first time since I left. When I saw where she lived, the lack of infrastructure, and how many children were out of school in the community, I was shocked. I realised what she had done for me in sending me away and at that moment I knew I had to give back to my home country and ensure more girls got a chance at an education. That was the moment the dream to start Malaika, the organisation I founded in 2007, was planted in my heart. I went back to Europe, finished higher education, and began my modelling career when friends entered me for a competition with Agent Provocateur. I won it and did more campaigns in cities like New York and London and my career grew from there. I soon realised I had a platform from which to start building my dream and started taking steps to get Malaika off the ground. Now I am an international model, philanthropist, ambassador for the Global Fund, and CEO of Malaika, a full-time, voluntary role.
You are passionate about educating and empowering girls and communities, particularly through the organisation you founded Malaika. How has the organisation evolved and grown since its inception?
Malaika started 15 years ago and during that time it has grown to become a community-driven ecosystem that can be duplicated in other contexts around the world. We started with one classroom for a small number of students, and now we have a primary and secondary school that provides a free, quality, and well-rounded education to 400 girls. In 2011, we built our community centre partially in partnership with FIFA, which we’re continually growing. This provides sport and education to over 5,000 youths and adults each year. We have built and refurbished 23 wells, serving 32,000 individuals with clean, centralized water. We also engage in agriculture, which provides food for the school and also facilitates vocational education in sustainable farming.
Could you tell us about the achievements and successes of Malaika?
I think Malaika’s biggest achievement is bringing sustainable development to the entire community. It’s great to educate their girls, but if the girls are having to travel long distances to fetch water, or are frequently getting ill from water-borne diseases, they cannot make the best of the opportunity you are offering them. By building and refurbishing the wells and providing education for adults as well, we are sustainably uplifting the whole community – equipping them to work, improving their health, and helping them to gain economic freedom. Through Malaika’s Nzuri Skills programme, many of our mothers now take part in Mama ya Mapendo, which is an ongoing achievement for the team. The ladies who come to learn at our community centre first learn English and numeracy skills, then learn to sew and embroider. The bags and accessories they make are then sold at our school, community centre, and local businesses, such as Hyper Psaro. Profits are reinvested into the programmes’ sustainability, and these women have an avenue to support themselves and move forward with tenable skills.
The students themselves are a success of Malaika. When they start they are malnourished and have small expectations for what they could do with their lives. We will be celebrating our first graduates next year, and they have become stronger both physically and mentally through their experiences of learning at Malaika. Malaika is a leadership school, and we teach the girls to give back to their community and believe in the immense difference they can make in their country.
Have you experienced any difficult periods managing your organisation and how were you able to overcome them?
The pandemic was an incredibly difficult time for Malaika, as it has been for everyone across the globe. We had to close a couple of times, and the community really suffered as food prices went up and many lost their jobs, but we were able to keep our local and international staff employed. To help meet the need we fundraised and distributed food and other staple items such as soap to more than 7,500 people during the lockdown. Students used 3D printers to create 1,200 face shields that we distributed to nurses and doctors in local hospitals. We commissioned Mama ya Mapendo women to sew thousands of masks, which were distributed to the community. It was amazing to see the resources and skills that Malaika has provided the community with utilised in this crisis. Though we had a painful reminder as to how much Malaika protects the girls and their health as we sadly lost three students, Leya, Esther Annie, and little Noella, due to preventable illnesses when the school was closed.
In 2017, you were named as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential & Inspirational Women of the Year, and in 2018, you also received an award at the 100 Years of Mandela celebration. How can we get more women to be recognized for the great work they do?
I think, on the whole, more women are recognised in this present moment than in years gone by, and I’m grateful for that. I think in order for more women to be recognised we need them to be given the opportunities that will get them recognised. They need to be supported and financed to achieve their dreams and create their visions. They also need to be given more positions of leadership and influence in a variety of industries, not just those typically led by females. I want to thank the women and everyone on my team, as well as our entire community, for working so hard this year. I’m so proud that we won the 2021 World Literacy Award, and I think part of the drive to achieve comes from recognizing individuals when they are contributing toward a better world whether in their situation and circumstance or on a more global level.
You are an Ambassador for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. What in your opinion has been the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the girls and communities you work with?
The pandemic has been extremely disruptive. In the developing world, people do not have easy access to world news, so it came as a shock when COVID-19 was suddenly on their doorstep and life became even more challenging than it already was. It’s hard for people to protect themselves when there is no sanitation or running water. I do feel on a positive note that with the support of our team on the ground, it was an empowering moment for the community. They were able to use their skills to help protect themselves and also support their local healthcare providers, they were not just helpless victims of a crisis but were able to contribute some solutions. They are incredibly resilient people and have survived other, more deadly, outbreaks before.
Looking back on your career and life’s work, is there anything you wish you had done differently?
To be honest, I don’t think so. I have always stayed true to my values and worked hard to achieve my goals. Anything I look back on and think I shouldn’t have given time to has at least served the purpose of teaching me to set boundaries and everything that has gone wrong has taught me other lessons and made me more resilient and focused.
What does success mean to you?
Success means achieving my goals and facilitating others to achieve theirs. It must be both or it’s not a success to me. Giving back has always been built into my career and it always will be. We all benefit when we uplift those who experience disadvantages.
How do you stay motivated and stay inspired in your line of work?
It is not hard when I see the amazing team on the ground in Congo and the fantastic work they are doing. Also, when I see the impact we are having alongside the other needs that need to be met. Our girls arrive at age 5, and now they are maturing into young women who are 16 or 17. You have Pascaline who wants to be a doctor, and Frida a chemist. It’s so beautiful to see them grow; it makes me smile. There is much more to be done and I am inspired by what we have achieved so far and passionate about doing even more.
What do you take pride in?
I take great pride in my two children. They are very involved in my work, they visit Congo with me for six weeks every summer and they help with fundraising by donating their birthdays. Of course, I take pride in Malaika and what we have achieved together as a team as we celebrate our 15th year—that’s so amazing to me—with all our donors and volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without them.
To learn more about Noëlla Coursaris Musunka and support her work, follow her on Instagram @noellacoursaris, Twitter @NoellaCC, Facebook @Noella Coursaris Musunka, and LinkedIn @Noella Coursaris Musunka. Also, follow Malaika @MalaikaDRC on all channels.
