Ray of hope for children in need
CHRISTINA Noble shook my hand energetically in the lobby of the Foreign Correspondent's Club. 'I've only got half an hour for the interview,' she announced efficiently. 'I've got to pick up lots of toys for the kids from Toys 'R' Us, then pack and get to the airport.' She had cancelled an earlier interview a few days before because she was exhausted. Not surprising: the Irish woman who has dedicated the past seven years of her life to helping street children in Vietnam has so much drive you can only imagine her stopping when she reaches total exhaustion.
She then rests, picks herself up and pushes herself to the limit again.
It is this determination that helped her to survive years spent as a street child in post-war Dublin; a desperately unhappy marriage, and, later, helped her launch a project in Ho Chi Minh City that has given many children and their families hope of a real future.
When she arrived in Vietnam in 1989 she saw hundreds of toddlers and lost adolescents living on the streets. They were hungry, unloved, facing sexual and physical abuse from strangers, and always in danger of being rounded up into camps by the authorities.
Today, partly through her own efforts, and partly through the increased awareness of the government, the children have somewhere to go, somewhere to learn new skills, get medical attention and dental treatment (94 per cent of the street children have chronically bad teeth) and - most important for Noble who grew up without love - they find people who will love them unconditionally. She has a trick of 'putting on the Irish', a form of charming persuasion that makes business people, donors - and journalists - do exactly what she wants. She needs it.
The yearly bills for the Ho Chi Minh projects are now around US$250,000 (about HK$1.93 million) a year and rising quickly as she reaches out further to children and families who need her help.
It is also a critical asset when she is setting up foundations abroad - in Britain, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, France and now - with support from local business people, a Christina Noble Foundation should be opening soon in Hong Kong.