Christina’s noble cause gets OBE nod

FROM the lowly lanes of the Liberties to Buckingham Palace grandeur, children’s rights campaigner Christina Noble has made much progress on the road less travelled.

Her efforts, which have saved and improved the lives of thousands of children in Vietnam and Mongolia, will today be honoured by the Queen of England in the form of an OBE award.

The Dublin woman said she was dedicating the award to the staff of the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNCF) and to street children everywhere.

“It’s a great honour, but this recognition is not just for me, it is for the children and our staff around the world and for our supporters everywhere, especially in Ireland where I’ve always received tremendous help,” she said.

Christina’s tireless work on behalf of street children was inspired by her own background and driven by a dream.

She was born into the slums of Dublin in 1944, to a father with a drink problem and a mother who died when Christina was 10.

After years in an institution and being gang-raped in Phoenix Park, Christina ran away to England to be with her brother. There she met and married her husband and had three children, Helenita, Nicolas and Androula. Unfortunately, the cycle of abuse continued at the hands of her husband.

In 1971, she had a dream about naked Vietnam.

“Perhaps it was because the country was so much in the news at the time. In the dream, naked Vietnamese children were running down a dirt road fleeing from a napalm bombing. The ground under the children was cracked and coming apart and the children were reaching to me.”

In 1989, she eventually made it to Vietnam and has never looked back. There are currently 40 projects operating in Vietnam to meet the needs of street and destitute children. In 1997, she expanded operations into Mongolia.

She still remains the principal driving force and retains close personal contact with the children. More than 180,000 street children in Vietnam and 4,000 children in Mongolia have been helped by the CNCF. The woman known to the children as “Mama Tina” is now looking at setting up a project in Ireland.

But today she travels to meet the Queen. She’s not fussed about what to wear. As she’d say herself, her greatest reward is to see a child getting back their childhood.

To help finance her work, call the CNFC office at [phone].