CNN: Connect the World

CNN featured Noëlla as their Connector of their day. Click here to read the full interview on the CNN website.

Coursaris Musunka’s story is, by any standards, remarkable.

Born in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she lost her Greek father Georges when she was five years old.

Her Congolese mother, lacking the resources to raise her, sent Noella to live with relatives in Europe.

Noella was educated in Belgium and Switzerland and after achieving a degree in business management she moved to London and embarked on a career in the challenging world of international modeling after “jokingly” enrolling in a competition for a campaign for lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

Success with her modeling career brought Noella to New York where she was able to start the Georges Malaika Foundation (GMF).

The organization, named after her late father Georges, is aimed at providing educational opportunities for young Congolese girls.

In September 2008, she sponsored 16 girls’ education, paying their school, food, orphanage, and uniform fees. Another project Noella’s foundation worked on was to build an ecological school for 100 children.

Recently, she addressed UNICEF and the Congolese Parliament about issues that confront underprivileged girls.

Among other projects that Noella has been involved in is with KickStart, an organization that GMF helped establish itself in the Congolese market to enable them to offer efficient irrigation systems to farmers.

Please send us your questions for Noella Coursaris Musunka. Perhaps you want to know what you can do to help? Do you want to know how education changes lives?

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Posted by: Tom Hayes