Visionary: Mother Teresa

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Few career building visionaries have changed the world quite like Mother Teresa. A Roman Catholic nun born in Albania, Mother Teresa was revered as a humanitarian whose career building apex, the Missionaries of Charity, administered to the sick, orphaned, poor and dying originally in Calcutta, India, and spreading throughout the world.

In 1946, after years at the Sisters of Loreto convent in Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she believed to be the call of the Lord to serve outside of the convent. Her missionary work began in 1948 with her first career building efforts devoted to a school in Motijhil. Shortly afterward, she began to tend the needs of the poor, career building efforts that caught the attention of the Indian Prime Minister.

Teresa, who by this time was called Mother Teresa by those whom she served, received permission to start the congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity. The vision in life of this organization was to care for "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."

Mother Teresa opened many institutions for the destitute, including the Kalighat Home of the Pure Heart; the Shanti Nagar (City of Peace), a home for lepers, and the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, a haven for orphans and homeless youth.

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her vision in life and career building humanitarian efforts. At the time of her death, the Missionaries of Charity operated 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools. | 0 comments

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