Irish woman, Christina Noble, has been awarded the Friendship Order of Vietnam in recognition of her great contributions to social care and charitable activities to the Vietnamese disadvantaged children.
Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Tran Quang Hoan, to be authorised by the President of Vietnam, presented Christina, the founder and spirit of a children’s foundation named after her, the order at a ceremony held in London on Dec. 7. Christina said she would like to thank the President, the Government and the people of Vietnam for the award. “I must not forget the Women’s Union of Vietnam and all the colleagues. It is on behalf of those that I accept this award because we own it together,” she said. Christina is the first from Ireland and the third from the UK to receive this award. Since the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation (CNCF) was established in 1991, more than 100 projects have been implemented throughout Vietnam including those in the southern provinces of Dong Nai, Kien Giang and Ben Tre. These projects are designed to help children in need such as street children, malnourished infants and abandoned babies with medial care, nutritional rehabilitation, social opportunity, educational and vocational training. Christina grew up in the slums of Dublin, Ireland, in the 1950s then later she moved to live in the UK when she was 18. From firsthand experience, she understands a childhood of pain and betrayal, as well as the loneliness and suffering caused by children living on the streets. In the early 1970s, when Vietnam was so much in the news, Christina had a dream of children in Vietnam in desperate need of help. This dream took her to Vietnam and over the last 20 years she has helped hundreds of thousands of children./.
