CAF Foundation was born not in a boardroom, not in a charity office, but on a Facebook page — because two Congolese women refused to let the only story about the DRC be one of war and poverty. This is where it started.

www.congoleseandfabulous.com — where it all began.

It Started with a Facebook Post

In 2011, Christelle Tulia and Madeleine Laini created a Facebook page called @YoungCongoleseandFabulous. The premise was simple but radical: post images of the Congo that showed its beauty, its people, its culture, its history. Not the crisis. Not the conflict. Not the suffering. The Congo we wanted to see.

What began as a personal project — a form of cultural resistance — quickly became something much larger. The page grew. People shared. Congolese people across the diaspora saw images of their homeland that they had never seen in Western media. People who had never visited the DRC discovered a country of extraordinary rivers, ancient kingdoms, stunning biodiversity, and vibrant music.

Albums as Archives

The format of the page became an act of curation. Facebook albums were created to organise what was being shared: People, Places, Events, History, Art, Music, Food, Language. Each album was a small act of documentation — a claim that Congolese culture was worth cataloguing, worth preserving, worth sharing with the world.

Over time, the page became a kind of living archive: a record of what it meant to be Congolese and proud in the 21st century, built post by post, album by album, comment by comment. The community that formed around it was not just an audience — it was a movement. People reaching out to say: I didn't know this. I needed this. Thank you.

"We started because we were tired of seeing the Congo reduced to its crisis. We wanted to show the Congo we knew — the one our grandparents described, the one that lives in music and language and food and pride. The foundation was always there. We just gave it a form."

From Page to Foundation

What started as a social media page became an initiative, then a community, then a network, and finally — in 2024 — a formal charitable foundation. CAF Foundation carries the original @YoungCongoleseandFabulous spirit into its institutional work: the belief that narrative is power, that culture is infrastructure, and that Congolese communities deserve an institutional home that reflects their full complexity and potential.

The founding story is not a story about building a charity. It is a story about two people deciding that the way the Congo was being told was wrong — and choosing to do something about it. That choice became a foundation. The foundation is still making that choice, every day.

Visit the original @YoungCongoleseandFabulous page →