Rebecca (not her real name) has given birth to four children, by four different fathers, while being homeless. Two children have died. Two are doing well in care. "I love them and it hurts to see them call other people `mammy' and `daddy', but I know that it's best for them. I could not be dragging them around B&Bs. I want to give them the lifestyle I never got," Rebecca says. Herself a child of multi-generational poverty and disadvantage, Rebecca grew up as one of 11 children, who were abandoned by their mother and reared by their father. By the age of 14, Rebecca was injecting heroin, at 16 she had her first experience of prison, and by 18 she was a mother. During her years of homelessness, Rebecca slept in squats and hostels. Today, with the help of Focus Ireland, she has turned her life around: she is about to start a new job and has a Focus apartment, where her daughters will visit her this Christmas. "I was told by my psychiatrist that I am strong. He said that if he had gone through the pain I have, he would not be alive today."