Volunteer puts her faith to work

Norma Jean Hackett has fed hungry children in impoverished countries, witnessed families living in shacks and faced gunfire en route to war-torn lands.

As a volunteer with Omaha Rapid Response, Hackett has been to Iraq and Pakistan, Haiti and Sri Lanka, providing help and hope. Her commitment to Christianity guides that work.

“Jesus tells us to help the poor,” she said. “To love them and share with them.”

The Henderson, Iowa, native is shy about sharing her age, but Hackett, an oncology nurse at Methodist Hospital, is energetic and committed.

Some 20 years ago, when she was about 45 years old, Hackett earned her nursing degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. With her five children older and better able to care for themselves, the former homemaker had looked for a new challenge.

Nursing was a perfect fit.

When she isn’t working 12-hour shifts or helping others overseas, Hackett enjoys jogging, bicycle riding, hiking in the Colorado mountains and spending time with family, which includes Richard, her husband of 49 years.

Hackett, who commutes to Omaha for work from her acreage in Cedar Bluffs, Neb., has volunteered for nearly five years with Omaha Rapid Response, a faith-based organization that helps the less fortunate worldwide and at home.

Volunteers, including Hackett, pay their own expenses. Many use vacation time from full-time jobs to travel. It can be expensive, Hackett said. Airfare alone is usually about $2,000.

But she loves to help those in need.

In February, she spent more than a week in Gonaives, Haiti, as part of an eight-member team to help people who suffered from hurricane flooding.

In Gonaives, she worked with local doctors at a medical clinic, where most patients suffered from malnutrition. She also served rice and bean soup to hundreds of hungry children.

Hackett saw widowed women with small children living in tiny shacks. At night, children slept on dirt floors. Most shelters had leaky roofs and housed a single-size mattress and a few cooking pots. Meals were prepared by fire outside, near waste and trash piled in dirt streets.

Sadness is widespread, Hackett said. That’s why she volunteers.

“They are just happy to have some food to eat on a daily basis,” she said.

In the early fall, Hackett hopes to return to Pakistan and aid refugees in the Swat valley.

Contact the writer:

444-3198, chip.olsen@owh.com

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