(13 Mar 1997) Bengali/Nat

One of the world's best known humanitarians is about to retire.

Mother Teresa has spent a lifetime helping India's poor.

But recent health problems are forcing her to step down as head of the Missionaries of Charity - the order she created in 1948.

The process to choose her successor has been completed already..

As Mother Teresa enters the twilight of her career, A-P-T-V visits some of the people she's saved.

This man has only hours to live.

Alone and poor, he was rescued from the streets by Mother Teresa's corps of volunteers, who will give him a dignified farewell.

He is one of thousands helped by Mother Teresa's nuns.

Over the last 50 years, Mother Teresa has opened a number of havens like this one for Calcutta's poor, sick and helpless.

Here they receive the compassion they've missed all their lives.

In a city teeming with refugees from war and rural poverty, Mother Teresa provides the only place to turn for solace.

And it's not just comfort she provides. For many, Mother Teresa offers a real chance at a normal life.

Sankar (SHAN-kah) Roy remembers how her extraordinary touch saved his life.

Roy was just a ten-year-old boy - an orphan - when Mother Teresa rescued him from a crowded Calcutta railway station.

He was suffering from acute leprosy and could have lost his arms and legs to the disease.

When Mother Teresa found him, he was an outcast, begging for his food and sleeping on hard railway platforms.

Then, all at once, everything changed.

SOUNDBITE: (Bengali)
"When Mother found me, I was really sick. I had dark patches on my back and legs and no one would come near me or touch me. She just took me in. She's the only one who wanted to help me."
SUPERCAPTION: Sankar Roy, rehabilitated leper

Mother Teresa brought Roy here, to the Missionaries of Charity leprosy center just outside Calcutta.

In the clean, sprawling compound, he received food, shelter, the company of others like him...and, medical treatment for his leprosy.

He was also taught valuable work skills.

After 13 years in Mother Teresa's care, Roy left, totally cured.

Her charity treats hundreds of lepers each year. Most are rehabilitated and go on to work in the compound or in the surrounding town.

Many lepers say they feel they've suffered a social death because of the unsightly and contagious disease.

But Mother Teresa has helped change that.

Today, Sankar Roy is completely self-sufficient. He has a job at a poultry farm and lives just outside Calcutta with his wife and children.

He says he's grateful to Mother Teresa, knowing his sons will never be ostracized like he once was.

SOUNDBITE: (Bengali)
"Mother saved my life. She cured me. It seems a miracle that I'm alive and living such a happy life today."
SUPERCAPTION: Sankar Roy, rehabilitated leper

Marline Gomes also found herself at Mother Teresa's door when she was just a little girl.

From what she's been able to piece together, Marline's family fled Bangladesh in the early 70s when political turmoil displaced thousands.

Marline's father died soon after.

Alone and poor, her mother abandoned her at the gates of Mother Teresa's orphanage.

Marline was just five years old.

SOUNDBITE: (Bengali)
"My father died. What could my mother do? I had several brothers and sisters, so she took us to the orphanage. Mother just hugged us and took us in. We had everything,
food...clothes. They fed us, they educated us, they're the ones who loved us."
SUPER CAPTION: Marline Gomes, orphan





SOUNDBITE: (Bengali)





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