17573: Lemieux: St. Petersburg Times: From Playmate to angel in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

>From Playmate to angel
Susie Scott Krabacher has made caring for the children in
Haiti's slums her mission in life.
By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published December 27, 2003

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - When she started her modeling
career, working with poor slum children in Haiti wasn't
exactly what Susie Scott Krabacher had in mind.

Instead, she spent her early 20s partying at Hugh Hefner's
Playboy mansion. It earned her a centerfold spread and the
title of May 1983 Playboy Playmate.

But, these days, "Madame Susie," as she's known to adoring
kids in the Cite Soleil slum, has turned her life around -
remarkably so.

Krabacher, who retains her slim figure and model looks, is
the first to recognize her unusual transition.

"Yes, I'm the Playboy Playmate Mother Teresa of Haiti," she
joked.

But there is no making light of her achievements. After
arriving in Haiti nine years ago she founded the Mercy and
Sharing Foundation with the support of her husband, Aspen,
Colo., attorney Joe Krabacher. Now they run six schools and
three orphanages, with a total of 1,889 children.

In recognition of her work, Krabacher was recently made an
honorary Haitian citizen. She is also a member of the
illustrious Miami Children's Hospital Hall of Fame.

"Susie is quite amazing and unique," said Ann Lyons, vice
president of programs at the Miami Children's Hospital
Foundation.

Her first school - built in 1994 for $10,000 - sits in the
heart of the Bellecourt district of Cite Soleil, a warren
of muddy alleyways alongside a rubbish-strewn canal.

Barefoot children push and shove to greet her as she steps
from an SUV wearing leopard-spotted platforms, jeans and a
lowcut blouse. It's important to look your best in a slum,
she says.

"They like to see that people who have nice things are not
afraid to visit," she says. As for her shoes? "I always go
in platforms. I find they keep the mud off my feet."

She draws the line at designer sunglasses and handbags,
insisting instead on knock-offs: "I stopped wearing Gucci
and Fendi when I realized that I could feed a hundred kids
for what they cost."

Whereas most people would be lost in such surroundings,
Krabacher is in her element. This is gangland territory. A
score of young men recently died in a gang war for control
of Cite Soleil that lasted two months.

But there are no bodyguards to keep back the masses or push
off the younger men, one of whom whispered in her ear
recently as a dozen children clutched her pants.

"Bon jour, cherie," (Good day, darling) she greets everyone
- gang member or not - with a girlish tone in her voice.

Krabacher, a devout Christian, says she first considered
helping the poor after seeing a TV documentary about poor
children in Mongolia. A victim of abuse while in foster
care as a child, the images made a deep impression on her.

"Those kids had the same look in their eyes that I had
after being sexually abused. It just woke me up."

She decided to visit Mongolia and see if she could help.
But a friend at her church in Aspen who had just returned
from Haiti advised her to look closer to home.

She spent three terrifying nights here during her first
visit in 1994. Accompanied only by her church friend, the
couple took a taxi from the airport. In broken French they
told the driver they wanted to visit "Mother Teresa's Home
for the Poor." The driver didn't understand.

"He thought we wanted to see houses of poor people, so he
dropped us off in the middle of Cite Soleil," Krabacher
recalled.

Instead of bolting for one of the comfortable hotels where
foreigners usually stay, Scott spent the night in the slum.
A family agreed to take her in. Within three days she had
started hiring workers to build concrete blocks for the
school.

"Those three days changed my life, rocked my world," she
said. "I knew why I was born that day. I couldn't think of
going home without doing something because I knew I could."

But Krabacher soon realized the needs of children stretched
far beyond Cite Soleil. She sold her partnership in an
Aspen sushi bar and an antiques business, and invested
everything she had in founding the Mercy and Sharing
Foundation.

Soon she began picking up abandoned children all over the
city. She helped furnish a ward at the general hospital to
look after the sick and abandoned children.

When the hospital decided it could no longer care for the
children she had rescued, she bought a house and moved them
all there. "Ninety percent of those children are still
alive," she says proudly.

Now Krabacher has a contract to run a unit for abandoned
children at the hospital. Meanwhile, the foundation has
grown to a staff of 130 and a $240,000 annual budget,
almost half of which the Krabachers donate out of their own
pockets.

She is entirely dedicated to her Haiti projects, visiting
the country almost every month. During her time stateside
she raises funds and travels to speaking engagements.

Krabacher doesn't hesitate to use her looks and Playboy
past to lure potential donors. But, despite two appearances
on Oprah, and a spread in People magazine, she still
struggles to get funding.

To be sure, she has encountered generosity. American
Airlines lets her fly for free. Three years ago American
also donated a 757 jet to fly 39,000 pounds of rice and
beans to Haiti for the foundation.

Krabacher believes the foundation has been able to make a
difference for abandoned children in Haiti, along with the
work of other public and private programs, such as Palm
Harbor-based For Haiti With Love, and Hands Together, with
offices in Massachusetts.

"We have seen tremendous improvements," she said. "In the
beginning we lost two or three kids a day. I spent a lot of
time in the morgue."

Most died of complications from diarrhea and dehydration.

Others are born with more serious conditions, such as
hydrocephalus, spina bifida, and heart and lung problems.

At one of her orphanages in Cazeau, just outside the
capital, tiny infants lie in cribs in clean and cheerfully
painted dorms decorated with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

"This little girl weighed less than a pound when we found
her," she said, patting a sleeping child on the bottom.
"Today she probably weighs 5 to 6 lbs."

She names the abandoned kids after donors and friends in
Aspen. Some are put up for adoption, including the
disabled.

As she does her rounds, Krabacher gives every child a big
kiss on the lips. Some demand more than one kiss and big
hugs. She tries to cheer up Martin, a sad-faced 7-year-old
sitting in a high chair, who suffers from hydrocephalus -
water on the brain. Because his head is so swollen, he
never learned to walk. Krabacher explains that therapy to
strengthen his legs is causing him pain. He smiles
sheepishly when she plays with his feet, pumping his
matchstick legs.

Krabacher found another boy, Junior, in a pig pen behind a
downtown ministry building.

"He was totally naked living with the pigs," she said. "He
bit me when I tried to get him in the car."

Other children lie in bed, their atrophied limbs in
contorted positions.

"Jacques was one of my first," Krabacher says, leaning over
the skinny frame of a boy. "He's never really been ...,"
her voice trails off momentarily as she shows a rare sign
of emotion.

"We nearly lost him a dozen times," she manages. "He just
keeps hanging on."

Like many of the children, his tongue is so swollen he
can't swallow on his own, and he also suffers from severely
stunted growth.

"These kids are stronger than any other kids I have met,"
she said. "For some reason they always smile and look you
in the eyes. They are not vegetables. They are aware."

Krabacher has plans to continue expanding if funding
permits. She wants to install computers in her schools and
build a vocational training center to teach jobs skills.

Her staff says her energy and determination are what
impresses them the most.

"She's real," said Robert Lieske, 78, the director of the
orphanage, who came to Haiti to work with the poor in 1982.
Over the years he has seen many other well-meaning projects
crash and burn in Haiti's tough environment.

"Even if it (Mercy and Sharing) fell apart tomorrow, Susie
will have achieved more than most people in a lifetime as
far as helping others is concerned," he said.

If you want to help
If you would like to make a donation or learn more about
the Mercy and Sharing Foundation, visit the Web site:
www.haitichildren.com telephone: 970 925-1492 or (970)
925-6300 (Joe Krabacher's office). For other groups
mentioned in this story, visit:

- www.forhaitiwithlove.org 727 938-3245

- www.handstogether.org 413 731-7716.

© Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved

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