Mother Teresa

Hello, my dear friend. My name is Teresa, but when I was a little girl, my family called me Gonxhe, which means 'rosebud.' I was born a long, long time ago, on August 26, 1910, in a town called Skopje. My mother was very kind and always taught me to share what we had, even if it wasn’t much. She would say, 'When you do something for someone else, do it with a happy heart.' I loved listening to stories about missionaries who traveled to faraway lands to help people, and I felt a little whisper in my heart telling me that one day, I would do that too.

When I turned 18, I knew it was time to follow that whisper. I said goodbye to my family, which was very hard, and traveled all the way to India. It was a big, new world! I became a nun and chose the name Teresa. For many years, I was a teacher at a school for girls in a city called Calcutta. I loved teaching my students, but every day, when I looked outside the school walls, I saw people who were very poor and sick. They had no one to care for them, and my heart ached. I felt another, stronger whisper telling me I had to go out and help them directly.

So, I left the school and walked into the poorest streets of Calcutta. At first, I was all alone. I started by simply finding people who were hungry and giving them food, or sitting with those who were lonely. Soon, some of my former students joined me! Together, we started the Missionaries of Charity. We wore simple white clothes with blue stripes, called a sari. We opened homes where we could care for people who had nowhere else to go, giving them a clean bed, a warm meal, and lots of love. I always believed that it's not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing.

My work grew, and soon there were helpers like me all over the world. People saw that even small acts of kindness could make a big difference. They even gave me a special award called the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979! I lived a long and happy life helping others until I passed away in 1997. But the love continues. You don’t have to do big things to change the world. You can start by being kind to your family, sharing with a friend, or giving someone a smile. Remember, every little act done with great love can bring light into the world.