Ex-nurse, 83, nurtures artisans’ co-op, family planning clinic she founded in Haiti

[Are_grits_groceries]

Sarah Hackett lives in the Annisquam section of Gloucester, but returns to Haiti every year for seven or eight months at a time. (John Blanding/Globe Staff)

GLOUCESTER - At 83, Sarah Hackett could have spent Thanksgiving with her great-grandchildren in the gracious Annisquam village home her family has owned since 1829, overlooking placid Lobster Cove.

Instead, she rose at 3:30 a.m. Thursday to catch a dawn flight from Boston to Haiti, trekking once more to the poor mountain town of Fond des Blancs where she will live for the next several months. Since she retired in 1993 from a nursing career, she has returned every year for seven or eight months at a time, creating projects that help some of the poorest people in the Western Hemisphere stay healthy and make a living.

“It was the women I met there who kept me coming back,’’ she said. “They are so resilient and so courageous and so hard-working.’’

She founded a family planning clinic - butting heads early on with Catholic Church policy that forced birth control out of the local hospital. The family clinic now has mobile branches in surrounding villages, and serves 750 women.

Hackett also spotted an extraordinary untapped talent in the community - the women’s embroidery skills. So she helped the women create an artisans’ sewing cooperative that now exports finely embroidered garments to the United States and Europe, providing a steady income for more than 70 women.

Check out the website for their projects: http://www.haitiprojects.org/

A lot more of this great story:http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/28/at_83_still_on_a_mission_to_help_poor_haitian_town/?page=full

Good on her! :toast:

[Hekate]

1. Wonderful story.Only one thing:She may be retired, but like a retired doctor, she's never an "ex"...

Don't know if you can change your subject line or not -- it's just a quibble in a great post.

Hekate