Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in Skopje and her real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She joined a convent in Ireland in 1928 at age 18 and was then sent to Darjeeling, India in 1929 to teach. In 1931, she began teaching at a girls' school in Kolkata. In 1948, she left teaching and began working among the poor in the slums of Kolkata. From 1950 until her death in 1997, she worked selflessly for the downtrodden and sick destitute in Kolkata. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her dedicated and sincere work.