Bridge across my sorrows - Christina Noble

Christina Noble, is a child of the Liberties, the notorious slums of Dublin. Her story is one of extraordinary bravery and resilience in the face of deprivation and abuse such as most of people could not imagine. Christina recalls a childhood in Ireland that barely merits the name; after her mother's death the family is split apart, their alcoholic father unable to care for them. Christina is sexually abused by her uncle and later escapes from an orphanage to become destitute on the streets of Dublin. At sixteen she is pulled into a car by four men and raped repeatedly. Later, driven to near insanity by overwork and a violent husband, she finds in a dream the will to fight back. Yet far from being a vision of luxury and self-indulgence, Christina's hope lies in a determination to work among the bui doi, the street children of Vietnam.;And here the most extraordinary part of her story begins, on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, where destitute children swarm and the rich turn a blind eye. To these needy children "Mama Tina" becomes an irrepressible, unorthodox and staunch champion. Within two years of arriving she has opened a Medical and Social Centre and achieved worldwide fame. Yet she berates in colourful language all those who call her a "Mother Theresa". In her own words she is "one street child using her wiles to help other street children".