Christina Noble with some of the children under her foundation's care | Photo courtesy of Christina Noble

"That’s where America dropped the bombs,” said a man sitting beside Christina Noble as their aircraft dropped low over Ho Chi Minh City preparing to land. It was September 1989 and Christina—a middle-aged Irish woman with no formal education and what she considered a life devoid of accomplishment—didn’t know what she was doing there, except for a 20-year-old dream.

“I saw the skies, all red and blazing from bombs, and two little girls running towards me, their faces just terrified, reaching out for help,” she recalls of her troubling dream. “I wanted to grab their hands. Some people might call it a vision from God, others merely a memory from a scene I saw on television, but the most important thing is that it never left me. I couldn’t explain it, but I had to go to Vietnam.”

It was almost two decades before Christina was able to set foot in the country of her dream, where the Vietnam War had continued until 1975 and its consequences for much longer. “When I finally arrived, everywhere I saw ragged children. It was a horrendous, horrific scene. There was a lot of suffering and sickness yet at the same time there was this incredible strength borne out of adversity. I was reminded of my growing up as an orphan on the streets of Dublin, alone, separated from my siblings, and how badly I was treated by others because I had nothing. I immediately knew I needed to help. I wanted all these children to have a home, to feel a sense of belonging.”

She founded the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNFC) later that year and remembers the process as “incredibly hard—I went to every place I could think of. Believe me, I knocked on every door.” Her heart and persistence eventually won the support of a few Vietnamese and British companies, and an article about her brought extra funding after it was published in British tabloid The Sun. In 1991, Christina’s foundation established the Children’s Social and Medical Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, which provides free medical care to more than 6,000 street children a year. It also opened a school for 300 street children in 1991 and, three years later, an emergency shelter for boys, both in Ho Chi Minh City. After visiting Mongolia in 1997, Christina decided to set up operations there too.

The foundation, which is headquartered in London, raises funds through seven chapters around the world. The Hong Kong chapter, which has been operating for 15 years, raises HK$5 million to HK$6 million a year, and is the second largest of the chapters’ contributions. “I’m so grateful to Hong Kong for the love and support they’ve given us through the years,” says Christina, who was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003 for her philanthropy. She was also recognised in 2013 as one of the four finalists nominated for The One Hong Kong Humanitarian Award, a project supported by many of the city’s philanthropists, including Peter Bennett, the late Hari Harilela and his wife, Padma.

The Hong Kong chapter’s biggest fundraising event is the Ladies’ Long Lunch, which is organised in April around the Rugby Sevens and is so popular there is a waiting list for tickets. Guests get to meet members of the Penguin International Rugby Team and participate in silent and live auctions of artwork, luxury goods and holidays, as well as a diamond jewellery draw. It raised HK$1.3 million this year.

To date, the foundation has helped close to a million children across Vietnam and Mongolia with education, healthcare and community development projects. “There’s still much more to be done,” says Christina, “but my efforts are enriched by the global family we have at CNCF—people who have a great sense of love and compassion, who do everything with respect for the child.”

CNCF Hong Kong is currently rallying support for its event, The Perfect Girls’ Night In, on November 9. The event promises to offer lots of fun activities for the guests, while also raising much-needed funds for CNCF’s Sunshine School in Vietnam and the Ger Village in Mongolia.

CNCF Hong Kong welcomes sponsorships, donations and volunteers. Email hongkong@cncf.org to find out how you can contribute.