Rosedanie Cadet left Haiti for Brooklyn when she was 10 years old, and didn’t return until 36 years later.

Just one week after she came back to her home on Orcas, Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake that left more than 100,000 residents dead.

“My family is fine, but the house is destroyed,” she said. “I had planned to go back later this year, but I am returning now.”

This past December, Cadet had been arranging a trip to Japan when she had a change of heart. Inspired by the book “Creating a World Without Poverty,” which discusses the success of micro-lending in poor countries, she felt it was time to go home.

She joined the group Answered Prayers, which provides aid to children in Haiti, China, and Africa. She volunteered as a translator and worked with children in orphanages. Cadet also visited with family members she hadn’t seen in close to four decades.

After seeing communities that were starving as well as towns where there was so much food it was rotting, Cadet decided to take action.

She spoke to a church in her family’s town of Limbĕ about using some of their land to build a food processing plant.

“They had no way to preserve the food that was being grown,” Cadet said. “I want to help farmers better use their land, and give people jobs and provide food.”

The launch date of the plant has been moved up, and she will leave for Haiti on Feb. 10.

The Kitchen, where Cadet works, donated a portion of its proceeds ($1,136) from meals served on Martin Luther King Day to her enterprise.

“This project is all about rebuilding,” she said.

To donate

Visit www.answeredprayers2.org