Noëlla Coursaris Musunka is one of the leading voices for girls education and empowerment in Africa. Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, her Cypriot father passed away when she was just five, forcing her Congolese mother to send her to live with relatives in Europe because she could no longer support her on her own.
As an ambassador for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria – founded by Bill and Melinda Gates – the entrepreneur, supermodel, mother of two, and activist champions girls education as the key to unlocking the potential of our next generation. The cause is deeply personal for Musunka.
She accepted the honor in memory of a six-year girl who passed away due to complications from malaria while attending the Malaika School, a grassroots nonprofit that Musunka founded in 2007. Malaika educates and empowers girls in Kalebuka, a village 30 minutes away from Musunka’s hometown of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Malaika’s three components: an accredited school that provides a holistic education to 340 girls, a community center that offers a range of programs to 5,000 youth and adults annually, and a clean water program that supplies fresh water to over 30,000 people each year through the building and refurbishment of 17 wells, empowers the entire community.
Noëlla volunteers her time and skills alongside a global team of volunteers, and 31 Congolese staff members working on the ground at Malaika around-the-clock.
Proceeds from Musunka’s capsule makeup collection, named Aksanti, and fashion collaboration with designer Roksanda named THE OUTNET go directly to Malaika.
She has shared her insight around the globe at world-class forums including the Clinton Global Initiative, the World Economic Forum in Davos, at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and MIT, and for UNICEF.
In 2017 she was named one of the BBC’s 100 Most Influential & Inspirational Women of the Year. In 2019, Musunka received an award at the Nelson Mandela centenary celebration and the same year gave the keynote at the Forbes Leading Women Summit in Durban, South Africa for International Women’s Day.
For the powerful work she does helping girls to have a greater voice, and to bring awareness of the power of education beyond the village of Kalebuka to the nation of the DRC and the continent of Africa as a whole, Noëlla Coursaris Musunka is the SIA-Africa Person of the Month for February 2020.
