KENNEBUNK — When Lisa Lassey last visited Haiti, before last week’s devastating earthquake, it was a very different place. But it was never what one would consider a paradise. The unemployment rate reached 80 percent in some areas. Families lived crammed together in shacks. Children scambled for food, and oftentimes their only possessions were the clothes on their backs.

In one of the poorest nations on the planet, tragedy was not a headline-stealing media event; it was a way of life, a hardship broken only by the smiles of people who went about the business of living, because living was all they could afford.

Lassey had worked to change that, family by family, home by home. A resident of Kennebunk, she is the director of program development for Partners in Development, a humanitarian aid organization based in Ipswich, Mass., that since 1990 has been serving the extremely poor in Haiti.

Lassey, who travels to Haiti about twice a year and last visited the impoverished country in December, was instrumental in helping build homes and provide support for those who have struggled to stay afloat.

When the earthquake struck, it came as a personal blow. Some of her fellow staff members were still in Haiti when it happened, and as news and photos started trickling in ”“ painting a bleak picture of a nation ravaged by destruction and untold loss of life ”“ her thoughts turned to her fellow members of PID, and the friends she had made there throughout the years.

“The goal of this week was finding our staff,” said Lassey. “It was the toughest 48 hours of my life.”

Establishing communication was difficult. But little by little, news started trickling in about the status of the PID staff.

They were alive.

All of them.

“The program directors are alive, and all the houses we built are still standing,” said Lassey. “We have donations pouring in. The issue we’re going to have is getting them down there.”

Transporting supplies and aid has been a well-documented difficulty in recent days. But as a nine-year veteran of PID, Lassey feels she is up to the challenge. She got her start in the organization after meeting, and keeping in touch with, PID’s president, Gale Hull.

Lassey left her previous job to pursue what had become a deep-seeded passion.

“I took a cut in pay,” she said. “I got rid of all the benefits I had, and the cozy corner office ”¦ but I’m doing something I believe in now.”

The task ahead of the PID will be giving the people of Haiti something to believe in.

According to an official release from the orginization, Hull was scheduled to fly into Port au Prince on Sunday and a team was being developed to assist her upon her arrival. Partners in Development has a medical clinic in Port au Prince and volunteers expected to be able to help with injuries and other medical needs.

Though the organization is based in Ipswitch, Mainers are able ”“ and encouraged ”“ to donate to the relief efforts. Donations can be made on the PID Web site, www.pidonline.org, or a check can be sent via postal mail to PID, P.O. Box 9, Ipswitch, MA, 01938.

Whether conditions can be restored to what they were during Lassey’s December visit is unclear.

On Saturday, Lassey sat at her kitchen table in Kennebunk with her laptop open in front of her, watching a slideshow of photos from her trip to Haiti just four weeks ago. The pictures reflect a country that is poor, but resilient. Remarkable was the abundance of smiling faces, no doubt brought on by the help of a small group of Americans trying to make a difference.

During the slideshow, tears came to Lassey’s eyes. She knows of the fortunes of her fellow PID members, who managed to survive the devastation. Unknown to her are the fates of many of the friends she has made. There is at least one that she knows has survived. Others may be gone.

But days after the earthquake struck, the phone rang with some good news.

One of the PID members who was in Port au Prince during the disaster is a Haitian native whose brother, Gabidson Boisrond, lives in Kennebunkport. Boisrond could not be reached for comment over the weekend, but Lassey described him as being tortured by worry in the hours following the earthquake. He spent days not knowing whether his brother was alive or dead, and communication was almost impossible.

Earlier this week, Boisrond phoned Lassey to inform her that his brother was alive. The news made Lassey cry with relief.

Her four-year old daughter, Carly, walked into the room to see her mother with tears in her eyes, and asked ”“ as any four-year old would ”“ “Mommy, why are you crying?”

“They’re tears of joy,” was Lassey’s response. “I’m crying because I’m happy.”

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319, or at jlagasse@journaltribune.com.