961 Words Short Essay for kids on Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa’s original name was Agnes, and she was born on the 27th of August in 1910 in the country of Yugoslavia in Europe. From her very childhood she was unusually kind hearted and felt sorry to see anyone in distress.

When she was barely seventeen years old she joined the Christian Mission as, she was interested in serving the poorest of the poor, and this she thought was the right platform for her work. Her work and interest did not confine to the people of her own country but she was interested in working for the poor anywhere and everywhere in the world.

She joined the Loreto nuns in Dublin in Ireland where she learnt some English and also received relevant training for her work to be. She also studied scriptures of different religions and was finally highly impressed by the ancient culture and heritage of India. She read about personalities like Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanand, the Vedas and the Upanishads.

At the same time hand in hand with this knowledge about the rich heritage of India, Agnes also came to know the other side of the Indian scenario. She learnt that, in India there was endless poverty and misery in this vast country of millions. With all this knowledge about India, Agnes decided where she would work, and she opted for India as her venue of work.

In 1929 Agnes reached Calcutta and found a job as a teacher in St. Mary’s School an Ripon Road in Calcutta. She began teaching Indian students there who soon started admiring her, as their most loved and respected teacher. In 1931, she was christened and now came to the known as ‘Teresa’. Now she was called by her students as Sister Teresa.

In this same school she taught from 1929 to 1948 and became the Principal of the institution in the latter years of this period. At this time, she felt the necessity of learning the language of Hindi and Bengali, as; she was dealing with people speaking in these languages. She learnt these two languages from her students.

In 1948, Sister Teresa was allowed to leave the school and work independently for the welfare of the poor. In 1948 only she also took up Indian citizenship. Now she was well equipped for her final goal. She was now found moving about the city slums to provide solace and comfort to the poor and the downtrodden.

Soon after her appearance in the streets of Calcutta she came to be known as Mother Teresa, because she was seen to possess the motherly love and affection for all. She used to go to the homes of the sick and the afflicted and nursed them without any hesitation. However, she soon realised that, to nurse the sick, she required a proper training so, she took to a course in nursing in the Holy Hospital in Patna in Bihar.

On her return from Bihar, she had nothing to fall back upon. She took a single small room on hire in a jhuggi cluster and opened a free school there. This school was to cater to the schooling needs of the slum children. Mother taught the children to keep clean, to comb their hair, and brush their teeth with neem sticks. She used to tell them stories, played with them and, in their sickness she nursed them.

With all this being done at Mother’s school soon the school became very popular with the poor. Soon she also found helping hands among her old students, and the school became bigger and bigger, and now, at this stage of growth voluntary gifts of blankets, clothes, food and medicines started pouring in.

In 1950 Mother Teresa founded a new religious order and called it by the name of ‘Missionaries of Charity.’ This order was meant for those who were willing to give free service to the poor.

In 1952, the establishment of her order, the ‘Missionaries of Charity’ shifted to a building in Calcutta. It was here that she now opened a Home for the dying destitutes. This Home of the Mother was given the name of Nirmal Hirday. Here the work of the sisters and the attendants was to pick dying destitutes from pavements or anywhere else, with police help, and bring them to the Home for treatment and some succour.

Another institution established by the Mother was the Nirmal Shishu Bhavan. This was a Home for orphan children who were suffering. Now, once Mother’s work expanded so much, she requested for the help of the Bengal Government. She was successful in getting some funds sanctioned and some land allotted for her Homes, which were to be extended in Calcutta and Asansol. She also started a Home for lepers in Gobra, a suburb of Calcutta.

She got the nurses trained by one Mr. Sen, a doctor, a surgeon of leprosy. In this way work continued to expand under the able and selfless service and guidance of Mother Teresa. In Asansol on thirty-four acres of land allotted to her, she made a large Home for the dwelling of workers and patients. The name of the home was Shanti Nagar.

In 1964, Pope Paul VI came to India and he donated his new car for use of the Homes. With so much achieved, the Mother had become an International celebrity. Her original organisation the ‘Missionaries of Charity’ has grown into a world wide organisation spreading in more than thirty countries of the world.

Mother Teresa received several awards, like the Padmashri Award, in 1962, Nehru Award, Pope John XXII Prize, Magsaysay Award, Templeton Award, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Mother Teresa has been a legend of the modern world – which really lived in a world family of humanity.