For a woman who is as busy as Noëlla Coursaris Musunka, it’s actually surprisingly easy to set up an interview with her, despite it landing on the same day that she’s moving house. In fact, she’s even managed to squeeze in a gym session right before our chat at her new home on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah. 

A woman used to wearing many hats, she manages her time between being a model; a public speaker in leadership and women’s education; managing Malaika, the ever-growing non-profit she founded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and running around after her two children, JJ, 14, and Cara, 10. 

To describe Musunka as successful or inspiring would be a colossal understatement. Her modelling campaigns have graced high-fashion magazines worldwide, and she’s given speeches around the globe, including at Davos, the WISE Summit, Harvard University and the UN, and the BBC named her one of the 100 Most Influential and Inspirational Women.

That’s not all. She’s received the Daughters of Greatness prize from the Muhammad Ali Foundation and also won an award from the House of Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Centenary celebration for her work on Malaika. 

But Musunka’s story starts with humble beginnings – she was born an only child in the Congo, moving to live with relatives in Belgium at the age of five when her father passed away. Her mother was financially unable to raise her alone. 

She describes growing up in Europe as “tough”, but says she found an escape from life at home through education, eventually moving to Switzerland to take up a degree in Business Management. Up until this point, contact with her mother had been nothing more than a handful of letters and a few phone calls, but at the age of 18, Musunka decided to return to the Congo to see her mother for the first time in 13 years.

“I wanted to see where I was born. I wanted to know my mom, and it was strange because you look the same, you have the same manners, but she was kind of a stranger, so you need to build back this bond,” she recalls. “And seeing the conditions she was living in was hard. She was so poor.”

“I didn’t remember anything from my time being a child there,” she continues. “I think the visit was one of the most important and crucial times in my life.”

Struck by the poverty, Musunka vowed to help. “Seeing the country, the potential, but seeing so many kids out of school, I told my mom, ‘I will come back to help you, one day I will do something for my country.’”

Shortly after returning to Switzerland and graduating, Musunka moved to London to learn to speak English and continue her studies. Then something unexpected happened – she landed a modelling job in a campaign for lingerie brand Agent Provocateur. “I had been stopped a few times by people asking if I was interested in modelling, but I never really pursued it,” she explains. “Then my friends saw this competition and entered me. I didn’t actually think I would win – but I did.”

She was quickly signed up by a modelling agency, which advised her to move to New York. There, she was inundated with work, modelling for hair, fashion and jewellery brands. But the Congo was never far from Musunka’s mind, and with a healthy income, she knew she now had the finances to start making a difference. In 2007, she decided to set up Malaika.

“It started with wanting to sponsor girls in the Congo to be able to go to school. I wanted to build the school, but nobody believed in it at and getting donations and funding was a struggle,” she shares. “We had no real outside funding for the first five years, so I put in my own money and many friends helped me set it up. When companies saw the work, they started to get involved.”

Fast forward nearly 16 years, and Musunka has helped raise around $10 million. The project in the village of Kalebuka has gone from strength to strength, with sponsors such as Unilever, the L’Oreal Fund for Women and the FIFA Foundation pledging to help, along with many celebrity ambassadors and donors such as the rapper Eve and actor Thandiwe Newton, all helping to raise the $800,000 needed annually to run what is now a much bigger project. As well as the school for over 430 girls, “we built a community centre partially in partnership with FIFA that provides education, health, and sports programmes to over 5,000 youth and adults each year,” explains Musunka. “We have built and refurbished 31 wells and provide clean water for over 35,000 people each year,” she adds. “We have an agriculture programme, the food from which helps feed students and staff two meals each a day, as many of the children were eating only two meals a week.” There are also vocational courses for adults.

One of Musunka’s proudest moments came last summer when she watched 17 of the girls from her school take part in the foundation’s inaugural graduation ceremony, with many of the students heading to universities abroad on scholarships. Another 25 students graduated this summer and will pursue further education in everything from the arts to STEM subjects – proof that anything is possible.

“I want to show a different side of Africa. People just see corruption or war – yes, we have these problems, but I think, as an individual, you can be a driving force in the community,” she says frankly. “We’ve now become the blueprint for the standard of schools in the Congo. When they want to build a school now, they come to see us.”

Despite the full-time effort required to work on Malaika, the mother-of-two takes no salary from her role as founder and continues to work as a model and influencer, and as a public speaker. (She says she fell in love with the Middle East during a talk she gave at Dubai EXPO 2020.)

She is also an Ambassador for The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and is on the board for a number of charitable foundations. But Musunka, who moved to Dubai earlier this year, seems to have a good handle on work-life balance.

“I have kids, so they make me escape my world of business and philanthropy. I have to do homework with them, read with them, and we watch a lot of movies in Dubai cinemas,” She laughs. “But my real balance is the gym, the spa, and seeing friends. And I always take Friday afternoon off – the dream is to have Wednesday off too.”

So, what advice would she give to young women who look at her journey and are wondering where to start? “Begin very small. Believe in yourself. Put all your passion in, and keep educating yourself,” Musunka answers. “You also need to be able to say no, and that’s what will keep you very focused on what you want to achieve.”

Follow @noellacoursaris on Instagram. Feature image courtesy of @violetasofia