Mother Teresa birthday 2024: Nobel laureate's work in India

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Mother Teresa, who is considered to be a symbol of compassion, was born on August 26, 1910, in present-day North Macedonia. However, in 1931, at the young age of 21, after she took her vows in Ireland, Mother Teresa was sent to India, and she soon made the country her home.

Till 1948, Mother Teresa taught at St Mary's High School in Kolkata (Calcutta). However, she wanted to do much more for those suffering from poverty and illness and realised that she could not keep herself confined to the walls of a classroom. Thus, she devoted herself to the poor, and began working in the slums of Calcutta from 1948. During this time, she started an open-air school for slum children despite lack of funds. Seeing her dedication to serve the poor, several volunteers joined Mother Teresa in her work, which also later opened doors for financial support for her cause.

As donors began pouring in, Mother Teresa extended her scope of work and established The Missionaries of Charity to care for those who had no one to look after. The institute spread its wings to several countries across all continents in the coming years to serve the poorest of the poor. During natural calamities, the members of the Missionaries of Charity began helping the civilians affected by earthquakes, famines, floods and epidemics. They also started working for refugees, alcoholics, the homeless, and patients suffering from AIDS, a disease that had a lot of stigma attached to it before the 2010s.

Back home in India, Mother Teresa battled another disease: leprosy. Caregivers hesitated to touch the patients of leprosy, leave alone taking care of them. However, Mother Teresa's leprosy outreach changed many people's views about the disease and its patients. The Nobel Laureate opened a hospice for leprosy patients in Calcutta and named it Shanti Nagar. The leprosy clinics established by The Missionaries of Charity provided patients with food and medication while its volunteers dressed their wounds.

During her lifetime, Mother Teresa has received several honours: two of the prominent ones being the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna, a year later.

On September 5, 1997, the daughter of Europe breathed her last in the city that she made home, Calcutta. She was 87 years old. Her funeral witnessed large crowds who went to pay their final tributes to the Nobel laureate, whose selfless and compassionate work uplifted the lives of hundreds of people.