Analysis and evaluation of the NHS

Analysis and evaluation of the NHS The National Health Service (NHS) provides healthcare for all UK citizens based on their need for healthcare rather than their ability to pay for it. NHS is funded by taxes. This report identifies the problem with NHS with problem solving tools and techniques. For finding this problem Casual Loop and BOT methodologies has been used. NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (NHS): On 5 July 1948, NHS was launched by Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan and for the first time health care became free to all UK citizen. In 1952, Patients started being charged for prescription. First mass vaccination programme for polio and diphtheria started in 1958. Before this, there were 8000 cases of polio and 70000 of diphtheria each year. In 1961, contraceptive pills were launched which gives women control over how many children they have. In 1962, Health Minister Enoch Powell put forward The Hospital Plan which set out a 10 year vision for hospital building. Every population of 125,000 was to get a hospital or district general hospital as they become known. In 1967 Abortion Act was passed by a free vote of MPs and introduced by Liberal MP David Steel which made abortion legal up to 28 weeks if a womans mental or physical health was at risk and further limit reduced to 24 weeks in 1990. In 1968, UKs first heart transplant surgery was carried out in the National Heart Hospital in London with 18 doctors and nurses operating a 45 year old man for seven hours. CT scanners were used for first time in 1972. CT scanners started to be used on patients through the development of the previous five years. CT scan machines take pictures of the body to develop 3D images, revolutionising investigations of the body. Worlds first test tube baby was born on 25 July 1978 before midnight in Oldham District General Hospital. To reduce breast cancer deaths in women over 50, breast screening was introduced in 1988 and along with improved drug treatment screening was estimated to have cut deaths by a fifth. In 1990 NHS and Community Care Act was introduced by the legislation which was known as the NHS internal market with health authorities given their own budgets to buy care for local populations from hospitals. In 1994 organ donor register created to co-ordinate supply and demand. It was the result of a five year campaign by John and Rosemary Cox whose son Peter died in 1989 and he had asked for his organs to be used to help others. In 2006, patients were given the choice of four or five hospitals, ending the long held tradition of going where GPs decides. The scheme has now been extended to include all hospitals in England but not adopted elsewhere in UK. PEST ANALYSIS: A review of the political, economic, social and technical (PEST) environment involves analysing the environment for any organisation. UK based healthcare provider for the public, NHS funded by contributions made from taxes distributed by the government to each of the trusts. NHS operates within a politically stable economy with funds pledged by both previous and current governments to the service for improvements in healthcare and salaries for staff. NHS facing the economic environment is a growing economy with a rising elderly population and less working people to support them. It has become increasingly difficult to recruit medical staff and shortages have often been counteracted by employing staff from other European Union countries which in turn increases the population within the UK. The social environment shapes beliefs, values and norms (Kotler). Belief is the core values of the health service and the services it offers was high on the publics list of concerns during the last general election as if NHS is an internal part of the UK and its culture. The technological environment is moving fast within the health care sector with continually development of drugs, advancement of techniques for operations and the use of technologies for both medical and administrative procedures. SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: There is no real competitor for the NHS although it doesnt have monopoly in the market. Accident and Emergency service is unique to the NHS though private hospitals are available throughout the UK. The NHS has continued to grow and expand upon its services since it was established in 1948. NHS maintains good relationship with health community partners. Weaknesses: Due to increasing population NHS is unable to cope with the demand. High waiting time for the patients. Bad behaviours and attitudes of some staff. Opportunities: Uses of marketing strategies to raise the profile of the NHS. Partnerships and joint ventures with private and voluntary sector. Threats: Work of contractors affects image of NHS. High turnover of staff. Shift of services to primary care. CAUSAL LOOP DIAGRAM: Causal Loop Diagrams contain several components: One or more feedback loops that are either reinforcing or balancing processes. Cause and effect relationships among the variables. Delays. Where feedback reduces the impact of change, it is a Balancing loop. Balancing loops try to bring things to a desired state and keep them there. Where feedback increases the impact of change, it is a Reinforcing loop. Reinforcing loops compound changes in one direction with even more changes in that direction. Causal Loop Diagram has two kinds of relationships between variables: When variable A changes, variable B changes in the same(S) direction. It is indicated by (S) in the diagram. When variable A changes, variable B changes in the opposite (O) direction. It is indicated by (O) in the diagram. The Causal Loop Diagram for NHS contains variables which are as follow: Number of Doctors, Nurses and other medical staff: The number of doctors, Nurses and other medical staff working in the NHS is inversely related to the waiting time for patients. This implies that when the number of staff increases, the waiting time for patients decreases because of added capacity. The number of staff working with NHS depends on softer variables such as their morale and work environment. Number of Patients on the Waiting List: This refers to the number of patients on NHS waiting list. The waiting list becomes short when a large number of patients shift from NHS to private health care and becomes particularly long due to seasonal peaks. Waiting time: This is time a patient has to wait before he/she can be treated by NHS. Number of hospitals, beds, medical equipment: The number of hospitals, beds and medical equipment are dependent on the annual NHS budget and funding. If there is a lack of these resources than it would increase tension in the system and it would take longer to treat patients. Perceived quality of Health Services (Waiting time, Treatment and After Care): -This varies from patient to patient, if the waiting time is too long, the perceived quality of the service is low and this in turn causes more people to complain against the NHS. Number of Complaints: Dissatisfaction of the patients due to increase in waiting times leads to an increase in complaints against the NHS. This increases pressure on the government and the Department of Health by acts of the National Audit Office. Number of Patients shifting to private Health care: The patients dissatisfied by the long waiting times of NHS, started complaining and shifting to private health care. Government action: Longer waiting lists increased media pressure causing the Government to increase its annual NHS budget which relaxes the system temporarily as new funds increases the NHS capacity. Investment in facilities, Medical equipment and information technology: An increase in the NHS budget allows the NHS to hire more medical staff and improve the capacities in hospitals. More patients can be treated within short time and the waiting lists can become shorter as the budget increases. Partnership with Private Health Care: NHS cannot cope with the excessive demand when the waiting lists become too long. So it tends to outsource its service to private health care e.g. BUPA, NHS express surgery units in partnership with state run German and French health care firms. This is quick and short way to fix the problem and tends to bring down the waiting time in the short run. Morale of doctors and other medical staff: This is a soft variable that depends on factors like the quality of the work environment in the NHS hospitals, the work pressure and employee satisfaction. The morale of doctors and other medical staff has a positive effect on the quality of service provided to patients. It also determines the number of doctors and medical staff that stay with NHS or join NHS. Number of patients coming back to the NHS: The waiting list tends to decrease when a large number of patients shift to private health care or/and when the NHS budget is increased to support improved health care. The waiting time for the treatment becomes short and due to this some of the patients who had previously shifted to private health care return to NHS. This once again increases the waiting list of the patients. All the actions and movements of these variables are shown in the Causal Loop Diagram of NHS (figure 1) Figure : Causal Loop Diagram for NHS Key: = Loop 1(Balancing Loop) = Loop 5(Reinforcing Loop) S = Augmenting Relationship O = Inhibiting Relationship The causal loop diagram suggests that a deeper set of forces is at work and the problem situation to be modelled is complex and dynamic. It is necessary to consider both hard variable (number of beds and hospitals) and soft variables (morale of staff). There are 6 loops in the system. There are 2 positive loops or reinforcing loops and 4 loops are negative or balancing loops. In loop 1, increasing number of patients on waiting list increases the waiting time which leads to dissatisfaction and complaints against the NHS. This also switches some patients to private health care. Increasing pressure from public and media forces the government to increase the NHS budget. This tends to have positive effect on the system by increasing NHS capacity and reducing the waiting list. Loop 1 is affected by loop 5 which is positive and reinforcing loop. Some patients decide to return to NHS from private health care as waiting list is decline. This increases the waiting list once again. Hence, there are no proper solutions to the problem or solution is difficult to achieve. Many obvious solutions to the problem like increasing the NHS budget failed in the past. The causal loop diagram contains more negative loops than positive loops. Hence the system appears to be a negative system that tends to counter uncontrolled deviation and stabilise if the waiting list increases significantly. CONCLUSION: NHS is the UK health care service run by the government funded through the taxes. This report shows environmental condition of NHS through PEST analysis and Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of NHS through the SWOT analysis. The causal loop diagram for NHS point out the main problem of NHS which is increasing waiting time for patients and a temporary increase in resources (NHS budget) gave short run solution for the problem. RECOMMENDATION: Collaboration with private health service to decline waiting time. NHS should maintain good relationship with private health service. NHS should overcome its weakness through its strength and reduce its threats through appropriate use of its opportunities. Increase its work force and equipment. NHS should stop the contract based employee and there should be better coordination between doctors, nurses and other employees.

Home Depot and Lowes Financial Analysis Essay

ANALYSIS: For the past two years (2012-2013) both Home Depot (HD) and Lowes (LOW) appear to be performing companies. However, overall Home Depot is a significantly stronger company. The total sales growth for HD is 3.0% versus 0.3% for LOW. A comparison of the Short-term Liquidity reveals that HD and LOW both have compatible current ratios. However, the Quick Ratio provides evidence that HD has a much stronger operational efficiency. The Days Receivable, Inventory and Payables all validate the efficiency of how HD is managing their inventory and accounts. Based on this simple fact alone, HD is performing well above LOW. The difference of profitability is highlighted at the significant difference in sales growth of HD (3.0%) versus LOW (0.3%). Within all categories of profitability, HD is out performing LOW. The return on assets to generating profits is proving to be very effective for HD. HD has separated itself from LOW in its capability and efficiency. HDs total asset and investmen t returns clearly separate them from LOW. The HD return on investments categories is almost double for HD over LOW. It is this efficiency that gauges hoe much more effective HD is at putting investments to work to generate revenue. The long-term solvency ratios show that HD is also a much more secure company. The interest coverage is comparable to both companies. However, the Long-Term debt to common equity shows the leverage that HD has over LOW. It only has a very conservative 2% reliance on their debt versus a very high 52.9% for LOW. This difference shows the risk factor that could potentially affect the ability of LOW to repay their debts. The market ratio shows similar price earnings for both HD & LOW. The beta is also compatible and highlights the risk that LOW is slightly higher than HD. The HD Common Stock Market to Book Return, illustrates how HD has almost doubled their market value of their stock to the amount invested by stockholders. This is an incredible strength for any company to achieve. LOW also has a solid ratio, just not as strong as what HD has. The cash flow from operation/net income shows a slight higher ratio for LOW. There was definitely a spike for all cash flow for LOW from 2012 to 2013. HD fell slightly behind LOW at the operational/new income ratio. However, HD is considerably stronger in the cash from operations/investment proving their ability of using internally generated cash from operations to expand the company if desired. The overall winner between HD an LOW is no  question: Home Depot! The company is simply performing much better than Lowes in virtually every financial category as a company. Regarding the DuPont Analysis. In the 1920’s the DuPont Corporation developed what became known as the DuPont analysis, a technique which uses basic accounting identities to break down the return on equity into either 3 or 5 component parts. Based on the information within the report, HD has consistently achieved greater success and proves to be secure enough that it will continue this future trend. The overall N et Income/Sales & Earnings to Price Ratio illustrates clearly that operationally HD is a much better company than Lowes.

Mother Teresa

BLESSED MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA Mother Teresa of Calcutta was an Albanian-born Indian Roman Catholic nun and founder of the Missionaries of Charity. She was a very devout catholic who dedicated her life to caring for well-being of others and helping those in need of love and affection. Her beliefs and values of life reflected her religious identity and purpose, which developed and contributed to her life and work. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in Macedonia, on the 26th of August, 1910.From her childhood, Agnes attended prayers and received first communion at the age of five. Her father died when she was just eight years old leaving the family in financial straits. Her mother raised her children firmly as Roman Catholics and this greatly influenced Agnes' character and vocation. Her religious formation was further assisted by the parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved. Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service i n Bengal.By the age of 12, she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left home at the age of 18 and joined the sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. She arrived in India and began her novitiate in Darjeeling in 1929, where she taught at the St. Mary’s school. She took her first religious vows as a nun on 24th May 1931. She chose to be named after Therese de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries and received the name Sister Mary Teresa.She stood her final profession of vows on 14th May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in eastern Calcutta. Mother Teresa was deeply disturbed by the suffering and poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. On 10th September 1946, she experienced what she later described as â€Å"the call within the call†. She heard God’s voice- the message was â€Å"to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. † It was an order and had to be obeyed. â€Å"To fail would have been to break the faith. †She left the Loreto community and devoted herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948 wearing the traditional white cotton sari with a blue border. After receiving basic medical training in Patna , she ventured out into the slums. Although she had no funds and no income, she depended on Divine Providence and started the first open-air school for slum children in Calcutta, helping them and teaching them about hygiene. Soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving.In early 1949 she was joined by a group of women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the â€Å"poorest of the poor. † On 7th October 1950, Mother Teresa started the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for â€Å"the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those peo ple who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society†. It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta and by 1997 it had grown to more than 4000 sisters. In 1952 Mother Teresa opened a home for the dying in Calcutta.She converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Home of the Pure Heart. Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith. â€Å"A beautiful death is for people who live like animals to die like angels-loved and wanted. † The Missionaries of charity established a home and clinics for those suffering from Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, providing medication, bandages and food. Later in 1955 they opened a children’s home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.The order spread through India in the 1960’s and soon expanded through the globe. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was found ed in 1963 and contemplative branch of the sisters followed in 1976. In 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi movement for priests and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5000 sisters worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.Her work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John Paul xx111 Peace Prize, 1971, the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding, 1972. After Mother Teresa’s death in 1997, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the third step towards canonization. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa.In 2002, the Vatican recognised as a miracle the healing of a tumour in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, aft er the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa’s picture. The beatification of Mother Teresa took place on 19th October 2003, bestowing on her the title â€Å"Blessed†. A second miracle is required for her to process to canonization. Everywhere in the world, Mother Teresa's work has been seen and awarded & she was given many awards for her selfless & loving acts. Pope John XXIII awarded Mother Teresa the Peace Prize in the year of 1971.Also, she was awarded the Nehru Prize because of her promotion of international peace and understanding in the year of 1972. Sadly, Mother Teresa had died on September 5, 1997 in her convent in India when she was at the age of 87. All in all, Mother Teresa was a selfless, living saint that had changed the lives of millions of people throughout the world. She had affected the lives of the poor, Catholics, & people like herself, that wanted to help others. She had done many great things from becoming a nun to creating one of the most effective orders in Catholic history. Mother Teresa Agnes Goanna Bauxite was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. Her parents' names were Nikolas and Droned Boo]axis, and she was the youngest of three children. Agnes was interested in helping people at a very young age. She became a member of a youth group in her parish called Stolidity. While she was a member of this youth group, she became interested in missionaries.She Joined a community known for their missionary work in India named the Sisters f Loretta at the age of 17. This is where she took her vows, and she chose the name Teresa after Saint There's of Leslies. Soon after, Sister Teresa began teaching at SST. Marry High School in Calcutta. In 1944 she became the principle of the high school. Sister Teresa became very ill and was not able to teach anymore, she was sent to Adrenaline for rest and recuperation. On the way to Adrenaline, she received a call that said, â€Å"She was to leave the convent and work with the poor, living among them. Mother Teresa started teac hing at a school in the slums. She also learned basic declined skills and treated people that could not afford doctors or medicine. Mother Teresa and some of her pupils went around poor neighborhoods and looked for dying children, men and women on the side of the streets who were rejected by local hospitals and brought them to a room that she rented out, and gave them the opportunity to die knowing that someone cared. The group of people that did this with mother Teresa was known as the Missionaries of Charity. The Missionaries of Charity started to branch throughout the world.The society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI. In the asses Malcolm Muggier wrote and produced a documentary called â€Å"Something Beautiful for God†. This book brought a wider public attention to the life of Mother Teresa. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, â€Å"for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace. † Mother Teresa did not attend the banquet but, but asked that the $192,000 be given to the poor. She also was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest U. S. Civilian award.She also received the honorary U. S. Citizenship. Mother Teresa never tried to convert the people she helped to the Catholic faith, but she still had strict a Catholic faith. She was strict on abortion, the death penalty, and divorce. On February 3, 1994 at a National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives, in Washington DC, Mother Teresa spoke about family life and abortion. She said, â€Å"Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Give the child to me. The last two decades of her life she spent traveling with different branches of the Missionaries of Charity helping the poor.During this time she mad multiple illnesses. In Rome is 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II, she suffered a heart attack. While she was in Mexico she suffe red from pneumonia, soon after she suffered from further heart problems. Due to all of her health issues she offered to resign from her head of Missionaries of Charity position, but the order of the sisters, a secret ballet, voted for her to stay. In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone, in August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. After her heart surgery her health began to decline again.She believed that she was under attack by the devil so she had a priest perform an exorcism on her. On March 13, 1997 she finally resigned from her head of Missionaries of Charity position. She died on September 5, 1997. If Mother Teresa had never come to be most people would not be affected, however it would have made a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives that she impacted thought her life. Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was born on 26 August 1910, but she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her â€Å"true birthday†. She was born in Skopje, now capital of the Republic of Macedonia, but at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as â€Å"the call within the call† while travelling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. â€Å"I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith. † She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the â€Å"poorest among the poor†. In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she travelled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the â€Å"poorest of the poor† in 450 centres around the world. Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity, but the sisters of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order. In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining. The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalised with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil. On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997. Mother Teresa â€Å"Love is repaid by love alone.† Mother Teresa first read these words when she was eighteen years old while on her way to Ireland to become a nun. Sixty-nine years later before her death she must have realized that she was one of the most loved women in the world. If the Saint Teresa’s phrase has any literal meaning, there is possibly no one in our age who has deserved so much love in return as Mother Teresa. Anyone who has heard her story can attest to her greatness. This was a woman who felt being a devout nun, just wasn’t enough. She gave up her Sisters of Loreto robe for the blue and white sari of the poor, to aid and live among the destitute of Calcutta. Upon taking a vow of poverty, purity and obedience to start her new order, she told herself, â€Å"I’ll teach myself to beg no matter how much abuse and humiliation I have to endure† in order to help others. Her unwavering devotion to this cause came from her belief that her work was nothing less than a direct order from God. Her Childhood Mother Teresa's story begins in the small town of Skopje in Albania, Eastern Europe. She was born in Skopje on 27th August 1910 to a shopkeeper, Nikolle Bojaxhiu and his wife Drana. She was given the names Agnes Gonxha. The family always called her Gonxha, which means flower bud, because she was always plump and pink and cheerful. She was the youngest of three children, with a brother Lazar and sister Aga. They lived in a large house with a big garden. The Bojaxhiu family had a long tradition of success in crafts, fabric-dyeing and trade. Gonxhe was baptized in the Heart of Jesus Catholic Church and successfully completed elementary and high school years in church schools, where she was an active member of the drama section, the literary section, and the church chorus. Her parents were very caring and never turned away anyone who needed help. When Mother Teresa recalled her childhood she said ‘We were a united and very happy family.' Her greatest joy as a child came during church masses where she could sing, read and pray. Agnes attended mass every day, prayed and said the rosary every night. When Agnes was eight years old her father died. Her mother worked very hard to make sure the children were happy and Mother Teresa remembered her childhood as being ‘exceptionally happy.' Agnes’ mother continued to help others in need, seemingly unaware of her own condition. She would take care of alcoholic women in their neighborhood and helped another widow with six children raise her family. When that widow died, those six children became a part of the Bojaxhiu family. By looking back on Mother Teresa’s childhood now we cannot help but understand the effects of her mother’s values, charity and devotion. She grew up surrounded by faith and compassion and at age twelve received her first â€Å"calling from God† to help the poor. Upon hearing of this experience, her mother gave Agnes this advice, â€Å"Put your hands in His hands and walk all the way with Him.†Ã‚   So at 12, she joined an Abbey, and at 18 she became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns. She trained in Dublin, where the motherhouse of the Loreto Sisters was. She chose the name of Sister Teresa, in memory of Saint Thà ©rà ¨se of Lisieux. In December 1928 she began her journey to India and continued to Darjeeling, at the base of the Himalayan Mountains, where she would continue her training towards her religious vows. Soon after, on January 6, 1929 she arrived in Calcutta, the capital of Bengal, India to teach at a school for girls. In Calcutta, she worked as a school aid, teacher and principal for a middle-class high school for Bengali girls. During these years she could not help but be touched by the poverty and misery in the streets and slums around her. She started actively going to hospitals and slums where she became more and more dissatisfied with the state of the people around her and the efforts to help them. On September 10, 1946, on the long train ride to Darjeeling where she was to go on a retreat and to recover from suspected tuberculosis, something happened. She had a life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God. Mother Teresa recalls: â€Å"I realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless – to be God's Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.† Read also  Summary : Love Is Never Silent She didn't hesitate, she didn't question. She asked permission to leave the Loreto congregation and to establish a new order of sisters. While the church recommended she join the Daughters of Saint Anna, who worked with the poor, Sister Teresa felt this was not nearly adequate to the calling she had received. She didn’t want to help the poor and retreat to a convent at night, but instead become one of the poor herself. She received that permission from Pope Pius XII. In 1948, at the age of 38, she exchanged her sister’s robe for the uniform of Calcutta’s poor and adopted a diet of rice and salt. The impoverished people of Calcutta were stunned by her presence among them. They could not understand why this European woman who spoke their language fluently would wash their babies, clean their wounds and educate their young. It was here in the streets of Calcutta where she was approached by one of her former students who made the remarkable request to join her. Mother Teresa was hesitant to invite someone else to take part in her calling because she wanted to make sure they understood the poverty that they would have to live in. Several weeks after Mother Teresa asked her former student to take time to think about it, the girl returned without any personal belongings or jewelry, wearing a sari, the uniform of the poor. She took Mother Teresa’s childhood name, Agnes as her own and became the first sister to join Mother Teresa’s calling. More sisters would join every month and by 1950, Sister Teresa had received approval from the Vatican to create another vow beyond her sister’s vows of poverty, purity and obedience. The fourth addition was, â€Å"To devote oneself out of abnegation to the care of the poor and needy who, crushed by want and destitution, live in conditions unworthy of human dignity.† With this vow, the Missionaries of Charity were born and its members were commanded to seek out the poor, abandoned, sick, infirm and dying and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. She wrote in her diary at this time that, â€Å"If the rich people can have the full service and devotion of so many nuns and priests, surely the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low can have the love and devotion of a few–The Slum Sister they call me, and I am glad to be just that for His love and glory.† In 1952 Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity began the work for which they have been noted ever since. Her order received permission from Calcutta officials to use a portion of the abandoned temple to Kali, the Hindu goddess of transition and destroyer of demons. Mother Teresa founded here the Kalighat Home for the Dying, which she named â€Å"Nirmal Hriday† (meaning â€Å"Pure Heart†). She and her fellow nuns gathered dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died. Mother Teresa's first orphanage was started in 1953, while in 1957 she and her Missionaries of Charity began working with lepers. In the years following, her homes (she called them â€Å"tabernacles†) have been established in hundreds of locations in the world. The world came to know Mother Teresa after a 1969 BBC documentary on her work, which included footage of a potential miracle. Images of an area in the hospice too dark to show up on film appeared in a soft light after development. This public exposure led to growth of her order throughout India and later in the world. Soon after Cardinal Spellman from the United States visited her at the Motherhouse. Mother Teresa recalled, â€Å"He asked me where we lived. I told him, ‘Here in this room, your Eminence. This is our refectory. We move the tables and benches to the side.’ He wanted to know where the rest of our convent was, where we could study. ‘We study here, too, your Eminence,’ I said. Then I added, ‘And this is also our dormitory.’ When the Cardinal asked if we had a chapel, I brought him to the end of this room. ‘It is also our chapel, your Eminence’ I told him†¦I don’t know what he was thinking, but he began to smile.† Mother Teresa made no exceptions to her dedication. When asked what she expected of a sister she said, â€Å"Let God radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the sick and suffering find in her a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let her be a friend of the little children in the street. I would much rather they make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.† Mother Teresa's Wisdom Analyzing her deed and achievements, John Paul II asked: â€Å"Where did Mother Teresa find the strength to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart.† â€Å"I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?† â€Å"The poor give us much more than we give them. They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them. â€Å"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God Himself.† â€Å"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.† â€Å"To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite.† â€Å"You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is a simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that.† Her Achievements In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa's request to expand her order to other countries. Teresa's order started to rapidly grow, with new homes opening all over the globe. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In addition, the first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Today over one million workers worldwide volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become known internationally. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge . In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Balzan prize (1978) for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples, the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996), and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, â€Å"for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace.† She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $6,000 funds be diverted to the poor in Calcutta, claiming the money would permit her to feed hundreds of needy for a year. In the same year, she was also awarded the Balzan Prize for promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools. Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honor normally given to presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pà ©rez de Cuà ©llar, for example, said: â€Å"She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world.†Ã‚   When she was asked â€Å"What can we do to promote world peace?† Her answer was simple: â€Å"Go home and love your family.† That was Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa-our mother Teresa. Mother Teresa â€Å"Love is repaid by love alone.† Mother Teresa first read these words when she was eighteen years old while on her way to Ireland to become a nun. Sixty-nine years later before her death she must have realized that she was one of the most loved women in the world. If the Saint Teresa’s phrase has any literal meaning, there is possibly no one in our age who has deserved so much love in return as Mother Teresa. Anyone who has heard her story can attest to her greatness. This was a woman who felt being a devout nun, just wasn’t enough. She gave up her Sisters of Loreto robe for the blue and white sari of the poor, to aid and live among the destitute of Calcutta. Upon taking a vow of poverty, purity and obedience to start her new order, she told herself, â€Å"I’ll teach myself to beg no matter how much abuse and humiliation I have to endure† in order to help others. Her unwavering devotion to this cause came from her belief that her work was nothing less than a direct order from God. Her Childhood Mother Teresa's story begins in the small town of Skopje in Albania, Eastern Europe. She was born in Skopje on 27th August 1910 to a shopkeeper, Nikolle Bojaxhiu and his wife Drana. She was given the names Agnes Gonxha. The family always called her Gonxha, which means flower bud, because she was always plump and pink and cheerful. She was the youngest of three children, with a brother Lazar and sister Aga. They lived in a large house with a big garden. The Bojaxhiu family had a long tradition of success in crafts, fabric-dyeing and trade. Gonxhe was baptized in the Heart of Jesus Catholic Church and successfully completed elementary and high school years in church schools, where she was an active member of the drama section, the literary section, and the church chorus. Her parents were very caring and never turned away anyone who needed help. When Mother Teresa recalled her childhood she said ‘We were a united and very happy family.' Her greatest joy as a child came during church masses where she could sing, read and pray. Agnes attended mass every day, prayed and said the rosary every night. When Agnes was eight years old her father died. Her mother worked very hard to make sure the children were happy and Mother Teresa remembered her childhood as being ‘exceptionally happy.' Agnes’ mother continued to help others in need, seemingly unaware of her own condition. She would take care of alcoholic women in their neighborhood and helped another widow with six children raise her family. When that widow died, those six children became a part of the Bojaxhiu family. By looking back on Mother Teresa’s childhood now we cannot help but understand the effects of her mother’s values, charity and devotion. She grew up surrounded by faith and compassion and at age twelve received her first â€Å"calling from God† to help the poor. Upon hearing of this experience, her mother gave Agnes this advice, â€Å"Put your hands in His hands and walk all the way with Him.†Ã‚   So at 12, she joined an Abbey, and at 18 she became a member of the Loreto Order of nuns. She trained in Dublin, where the motherhouse of the Loreto Sisters was. She chose the name of Sister Teresa, in memory of Saint Thà ©rà ¨se of Lisieux. In December 1928 she began her journey to India and continued to Darjeeling, at the base of the Himalayan Mountains, where she would continue her training towards her religious vows. Soon after, on January 6, 1929 she arrived in Calcutta, the capital of Bengal, India to teach at a school for girls. In Calcutta, she worked as a school aid, teacher and principal for a middle-class high school for Bengali girls. During these years she could not help but be touched by the poverty and misery in the streets and slums around her. She started actively going to hospitals and slums where she became more and more dissatisfied with the state of the people around her and the efforts to help them. On September 10, 1946, on the long train ride to Darjeeling where she was to go on a retreat and to recover from suspected tuberculosis, something happened. She had a life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God. Mother Teresa recalls: â€Å"I realized that I had the call to take care of the sick and the dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless – to be God's Love in action to the poorest of the poor. That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity.† Read also  Summary : Love Is Never Silent She didn't hesitate, she didn't question. She asked permission to leave the Loreto congregation and to establish a new order of sisters. While the church recommended she join the Daughters of Saint Anna, who worked with the poor, Sister Teresa felt this was not nearly adequate to the calling she had received. She didn’t want to help the poor and retreat to a convent at night, but instead become one of the poor herself. She received that permission from Pope Pius XII. In 1948, at the age of 38, she exchanged her sister’s robe for the uniform of Calcutta’s poor and adopted a diet of rice and salt. The impoverished people of Calcutta were stunned by her presence among them. They could not understand why this European woman who spoke their language fluently would wash their babies, clean their wounds and educate their young. It was here in the streets of Calcutta where she was approached by one of her former students who made the remarkable request to join her. Mother Teresa was hesitant to invite someone else to take part in her calling because she wanted to make sure they understood the poverty that they would have to live in. Several weeks after Mother Teresa asked her former student to take time to think about it, the girl returned without any personal belongings or jewelry, wearing a sari, the uniform of the poor. She took Mother Teresa’s childhood name, Agnes as her own and became the first sister to join Mother Teresa’s calling. More sisters would join every month and by 1950, Sister Teresa had received approval from the Vatican to create another vow beyond her sister’s vows of poverty, purity and obedience. The fourth addition was, â€Å"To devote oneself out of abnegation to the care of the poor and needy who, crushed by want and destitution, live in conditions unworthy of human dignity.† With this vow, the Missionaries of Charity were born and its members were commanded to seek out the poor, abandoned, sick, infirm and dying and Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa. She wrote in her diary at this time that, â€Å"If the rich people can have the full service and devotion of so many nuns and priests, surely the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low can have the love and devotion of a few–The Slum Sister they call me, and I am glad to be just that for His love and glory.† In 1952 Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity began the work for which they have been noted ever since. Her order received permission from Calcutta officials to use a portion of the abandoned temple to Kali, the Hindu goddess of transition and destroyer of demons. Mother Teresa founded here the Kalighat Home for the Dying, which she named â€Å"Nirmal Hriday† (meaning â€Å"Pure Heart†). She and her fellow nuns gathered dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died. Mother Teresa's first orphanage was started in 1953, while in 1957 she and her Missionaries of Charity began working with lepers. In the years following, her homes (she called them â€Å"tabernacles†) have been established in hundreds of locations in the world. The world came to know Mother Teresa after a 1969 BBC documentary on her work, which included footage of a potential miracle. Images of an area in the hospice too dark to show up on film appeared in a soft light after development. This public exposure led to growth of her order throughout India and later in the world. Soon after Cardinal Spellman from the United States visited her at the Motherhouse. Mother Teresa recalled, â€Å"He asked me where we lived. I told him, ‘Here in this room, your Eminence. This is our refectory. We move the tables and benches to the side.’ He wanted to know where the rest of our convent was, where we could study. ‘We study here, too, your Eminence,’ I said. Then I added, ‘And this is also our dormitory.’ When the Cardinal asked if we had a chapel, I brought him to the end of this room. ‘It is also our chapel, your Eminence’ I told him†¦I don’t know what he was thinking, but he began to smile.† Mother Teresa made no exceptions to her dedication. When asked what she expected of a sister she said, â€Å"Let God radiate and live his life in her and through her in the slums. Let the sick and suffering find in her a real angel of comfort and consolation. Let her be a friend of the little children in the street. I would much rather they make mistakes in kindness than work miracles in unkindness.† Mother Teresa's Wisdom Analyzing her deed and achievements, John Paul II asked: â€Å"Where did Mother Teresa find the strength to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart.† â€Å"I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord Himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?† â€Å"The poor give us much more than we give them. They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them. â€Å"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives – the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action. For in loving them, you are loving God Himself.† â€Å"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.† â€Å"To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite.† â€Å"You have to be holy in your position as you are, and I have to be holy in the position that God has put me. So it is nothing extraordinary to be holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few. Holiness is a simple duty for you and for me. We have been created for that.† Her Achievements In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa's request to expand her order to other countries. Teresa's order started to rapidly grow, with new homes opening all over the globe. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela, and others followed in Rome and Tanzania, and eventually in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, including Albania. In addition, the first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York. By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Today over one million workers worldwide volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa traveled to help the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become known internationally. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge . In 1971 Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. Other awards bestowed upon her included a Kennedy Prize (1971), the Balzan prize (1978) for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples, the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975), the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1994), honorary citizenship of the United States (November 16, 1996), and honorary degrees from a number of universities. In 1972 Mother Teresa was awarded the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, â€Å"for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace.† She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $6,000 funds be diverted to the poor in Calcutta, claiming the money would permit her to feed hundreds of needy for a year. In the same year, she was also awarded the Balzan Prize for promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages, and schools. Mother Teresa was granted a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honor normally given to presidents and prime ministers, in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India. Her death was widely considered a great tragedy within both secular and religious communities. The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pà ©rez de Cuà ©llar, for example, said: â€Å"She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world.†Ã‚   When she was asked â€Å"What can we do to promote world peace?† Her answer was simple: â€Å"Go home and love your family.† That was Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa-our mother Teresa.

Essay on Do Not Call List - 1801 Words

Abstract For years companies from all areas of commerce were allowed to call anyone they thought might be a candidate for their product without repercussions. A court order on Feb, 17th 2004 upheld an order to allow the general public to be listed on a do not call list. Businesses will now be held responsible if they contact someone on this list without their permission. The question is did the court make the right decision. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;We may not agree on much in this country, but one thing most of us can agree on is that telemarketing is a big nuisance. In fact one survey done by Walker Research in 1990 showed that 70 percent of Americans considered telemarketing an invasion of their privacy. In†¦show more content†¦Yet, forcing someone to listen to me speak my mind does impose a cost. This is the heart of the matter, which many people fail to understand: The right of free speech does not include the right to an audience. You have to earn an audience, which must be given of their own will. If not then the company is violating one of the most basic rights we have and that is the right to simply be left alone. As stated by the 10th U.s. Circuit Court of Appeals in The Associated Press (Feb. 14, 2004) quot;Just as a consumer can avoid door-to-door peddlers by placing a No Solicitation sign in his or her front yard, the do-not-call registry lets consumers avoid unwanted sales pitches that invade the home via telephonequot;. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Telemarketing businesses disagree with this point of view of course. They view their work as simply another way and means of advertising. The Direct Marketing Association fought the ruling in Sept. of 2003 and won with the court stating that the original law was imposing on their right to freedom of speech. They stated that the phone lines were owned by the phone companies and not the consumer which for the most part was true. Companies such as SBC and ATamp;T had built most of them yet the phones at the ends of these lines are owned by the general consumer. This is where the customer’s argument comes back into the light. With the phone being theirs they strongly believed that they should have the right stop inboundShow MoreRelatedRole of the Computers and the Internet in the Call Centre Industry1736 Words   |  7 PagesInternet in the Call Centre Industry Previous Presentation In the Mid-Term presentation I gave an overlook on the call centre industry, it’s meaning, its work. And I explained the role of the Computers and then the Internet in the call centre industry. And In this presentation I will explain the call centre softwares that are used and the many features of it and the advantages and disadvantages of a call centre. 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