Mother Teresa: The Social Entrepreneur & Saint

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Mother Teresa, December 1985. Image: Public domain
Mother Teresa, the Indian Saint from Albania, cared for the sick & dedicated her life to the service of the poor.

The Missionaries of Charity began in a small rat-infested shack in Calcutta, a city wrought by the horrors of famine, partition and poverty. Since its inception, it has lent a helping hand in every major disaster in India. Its logistics became global only after 1965 when the first overseas house as opened in Venezuela.

It’s founder, a short, lean woman called Teresa, went on to expand the organization across 133 countries with her service and dedication to serve the sick and the poor. Such was her tenacity that Teresa’s biographer, Navin Chawla, calls her a ‘management guru’.

Teresa fits into the category of the ‘social entrepreneur’ – those who explore ideas or enterprises that solve societal problems. It’s a term J.L. Thompson helped explain in 2002 when he wrote:

Many social entrepreneurs, then, are people with the qualities and behaviours we associate with the business entrepreneur but who operate in the community and are more concerned with caring and helping than with making money.”



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