A childhood that should not have happened.
Christina Noble was born in the Liberties in Dublin on 23 December 1944 and lost her mother at ten, growing up in a hardship no child should know.
Years later she would say that as a child she needed only one person to understand her suffering and her pain. That need became a promise. If she ever could, she would be that one person for someone else.
Sources: The Guardian, 13 February 2016; cncf.org/christina-story
She dreamed of children running from a war.
In 1971, raising three children in Birmingham, Christina dreamed of Vietnamese children fleeing napalm down a dirt road. She had never been to Vietnam. She could not forget them.
cncf.org says the dream was “nurtured over 17 years”. Seventeen years of ordinary life, holding an extraordinary intention. 17 years, one dream
Sources: cncf.org/christina-story; Irish America, May 2015
She arrived alone, with 748 dollars.
“When I began in Vietnam in 1989, people said what I wanted to do was impossible. I arrived alone from the UK, to a post war torn embargoed country across the other side of the world, with just seven hundred and forty-eight US dollars in my pocket... ‘You are only one person’ they said. But when I was a child, I needed only one person to understand my suffering and my pain. One is very important. There are many ones… and they all add up.”Christina Noble OBE, cncf.org/christina-story
No aid agency would take her. She got on a plane, checked into a hotel and started talking to street children. Her first centre was backed by an oil company.
Source: The Guardian, 13 February 2016
A centre, a foundation, schools and homes.
Within five years the dream had walls, beds and a name: Sunshine.
- 1990Sunshine Social & Medical Centre opens in Ho Chi Minh City.
- 1991CNCF Vietnam is founded.
- 1992The Sunshine Schools open.
- 1994The Sunshine Residential Homes open.
“Mama Tina makes magic real.”
What the children say, according to Christina (Hot Press, 2015).
Sources: CNCF newsletter, July 2026; cncf.org; Hot Press, 15 April 2015
Then a second country, four thousand kilometres north.
In 1997 CNCF extended its work to Ulaanbaatar, after the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of infrastructure left children in the cold.
- 1990sLate 1990s: work begins inside the Ulaanbaatar juvenile detention centre. It continues today.
- 2001Give-a-Ger begins: fully furnished five-wall gers for families.
- NowBlue Skies Ger Village, and Blue Skies Kindergarten, the first free accredited Montessori kindergarten in Mongolia.
“It doesn't matter whether you're in a gutter in Dublin or Ho Chi Minh City, it's still a gutter. What I want to do is get children out of the gutter because it's no childhood at all. Every child deserves love and cuddles and kindness and warm food and a bed, and every child has the right not to be afraid.”Christina Noble, The Guardian, 13 February 2016
Sources: cncf.org/christina-story; cncf.org programme pages; CNCF Annual Report 2024
The world noticed.
- 2003Appointed OBE in the New Year Honours.
- 2003Named one of Time Magazine Europe's “36 Inspiring Heroes of our World”.
- Order of Friendship Medals from both Mongolia and Vietnam.
- 2014The film Noble, written and directed by Stephen Bradley with Deirdre O'Kane as Christina. cncf.org counts “seven international film awards”.
Sources: cncf.org/our-awards; cncf.org/christina-story; Wikipedia, Noble (film)
One year, counted.
All figures from the CNCF Annual Report 2024.
Vietnam changed. So did the work.
The Sunshine Centre was handed to the Ministry of Health. The schools and homes that carried a generation closed, because the country they were built for no longer exists.
- Every child from the residential homes was reintegrated with their family, with scholarships, medical insurance and ongoing monitoring.
- The work moves to family-based care, education scholarships, paediatric surgery, child protection, and the Mongolia programmes.
“We must never stop fighting for the children.”Christina Noble, CNCF newsletter, July 2026
Sources: CNCF newsletter “Honouring Our Legacy, Shaping the Future”, 5 July 2026; cncf.org healthcare page
The next one.
More than 800 children are waiting for a sponsor. Each is aged 6 to 16, enrolled in school, and matched by the urgency of their circumstances. CNCF newsletter, July 2026; cncf.org/sponsor-a-child
“There are many ones… and they all add up.”Christina Noble OBE, cncf.org/christina-story
Be one.
Sponsor a child from $38 a month.
Choose Vietnam or Mongolia. Your support goes directly to the family, and you can write to your child and see them grow.
Christina Noble is 81. The next chapter is written by the people who read this page.
