Christina Noble - The Interview,
South China Morning Post - Postmagazine,
13 December 1998

This interview was going to take place in Mongolia, where the Christina Noble Children's Foundation has set up a home in Ulan Bator. Mongolia is not exactly an easy option. A couple of weeks ago, when I was planning to go there, I looked up the weather on the Internet. The average maximum December temperature is minus 16 degrees Celsius; the minimum is minus 287. It was dark, snowing and the airport was closed. Then Noble fell ill (her health is not good and she suffered double pneumonia on a previous trip). So eventually we met one Sunday morning in Hong Kong at the Excelsior.

I liked her tremendously. Fairly early on, she mentioned Mother Teresa, with whom she is often compared. I met Mother Teresa a couple of years ago, and a wonderfully genteel, holy woman she was, but I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, we're talking different spheres of saintliness here.

"Mother Teresa with balls - no disrespect to Mother Teresa," said Noble, when asked to describe any possible personality overlap.

Several friends who encountered her described her with the same word -"sentimental" - and I am sure she's the sort of amateur who is loathed by the big aid agencies.

But what she has done is - to use a quaint, unfashionable term - a miracle. And it's the tininess, the micro-nature of her set-up, which gives it force.

"I say to them, (the children) "Mama Tina is a big tree, you a small tree. You can lean on Mama Tina for a while.' You've got to do it step by step, give them education, health care, a clean bed to sleep I, clothing. And they all need a little bag with their name on it, to put their secrets in, that no one can take from them`. And give them treats, like ice-cream and lollipops. What I say is Father Christmas goes away, but Mama Tina stays."