Teresu Hsu Chih

The Mother Teresa of Singapore

Meet Teresu Hsu Chih, a social worker dubbed the “'The Mother Teresa of Singapore,' after a lifetime of service that continued up until her death at 113 years old.

Teresa was born in China in 1898 into extreme poverty. When her abusive father abandoned the family, Teresa moved with her mother and three siblings to Malaysia where she worked as a cleaner in a convent. Determined to get an education, Teresa asked the nuns if she could study alongside the other children, and after passing her exams ventured to Hong Kong to work as a secretary and then to China, where the horrors of World War II prompted her to join the volunteer ambulance service.

Frustrated by her lack of medical skills to help the wounded, Teresa decided to become a nurse. After the war, at 47 years old, she moved to London to study nursing and spent eight years as the only trained nurse in a small hospital in South America. In 1964 she settled in Singapore, alongside her mother and elder sister and worked as a matron at a local hospital.

The following year, Teresa and her sister combined the little funds they had and opened the Home for the Aged Sick: a free nursing home for elderly people who lacked the funds or relatives to care for them. It was one of the first free nursing homes in Singapore and Teresa worked as its unpaid matron until she retired in 1983.

Teresa continued her mission as a supercentenarian, setting up her charity Heart-to-Heart, that distributed food and cash donations. She credited her long life to her curiosity, vegetarian diet and yoga practice, which she picked up at 69 years old. After a lifetime of service, Teresa died in 2011, leaving behind a legacy of kindness that continues through her charity today.

Wherever I go, I do the same thing: I put my bags down and look for people who don’t have enough to eat. This is now my life. To share what I have with those who are hungrier than I.