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'Santé Buses' will aid Haiti quake survivors LAKE HOPATCONG — Parked next to a large snowbank in Skylands Medical Group’s parking lot, is a mini school bus painted with bright colors and French phrases. As snow flurries blow around the front hood — painted with a bright smiling sun and a turquoise blue sky — the bus seems slightly out of place. Even more amazing than the site of the bus is that it will soon be 1,500 miles away in Haiti. Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet, who has traveled to Haiti every year for the past 14 years, will take this bus and five other vehicles to the earthquake ravaged country to deliver medical aid. Bonnet will leave this morning with his son, Ethan, 25, for Port-au-Prince to coordinate with local doctors how to best reach the very-in-need ?population. "The major communities and cities are getting (health) care, but the small provinces and suburbs have nothing," Bonnet said. "There are thousands of people without anything." Bonnet, and his long-time friend from their days at Jefferson Township High School, John Anderson, are coordinating how best to ship the two "Santé buses" (French for health bus) and four Chevy Suburban trucks to the island. Bonnet said prices to ship to Haiti have doubled, and even quadrupled, since the Jan. 12 earthquake. The two friends have raised more than $70,000 to get the vehicles loaded with canopy tents, operating tables and medical supplies to Haiti. They say their biggest contributor is Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, which has raised money through fund-raisers. Bonnet will spend five days in Haiti, and will travel back to the impoverished country with the buses sometime in mid-March. Both trips will be documented by Anderson, who works in the basement of Skylands in what volunteers affectionately call the "Bat Cave," on the Web site www.santebus.org. All six vehicles will have permanent homes in Haiti as small medical clinics. As of right now, Anderson is still trying to figure out how many volunteers will be traveling with the vehicles, but said it should be around a half dozen. Local doctors will use them once the volunteers go home. The Santé Buses’ artwork was designed by Sussex Borough artist Kerr Graboski. Bonnet’s group, Healing Haiti Fund, bought the 10-year-old buses from Roxbury Auto in Wharton for $3,000 each and McGuire Auto Group in Little Falls is donating time to install replacement parts. Some of their money was raised from benefit concerts at Sparta High School, Sussex County Community College, and Pope John XXIII. Bonnet said he wants to raise $30,000 more by the start of the summer. Donations can be electronically submitted on www.santebus.org. Sparta concert aids Haiti SPARTA -- It may be a 10-year-old school bus, but with some cleaning and retrofitting on the inside and splashy decorations outside, "SantéBus" will get a second life as a medical clinic in Haiti. The first of the buses, although not yet retrofitted inside, was introduced Sunday by Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet during the first of several concerts to support the Healing Haiti Fund, founded by Bonnet. Bonnet, an osteopathic surgeon, has been making trips to Haiti for about 14 years, bringing medical care to the population of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. When the earthquake struck the country last month, Bonnet went there as quickly as he could. Now back in his hometown of Sparta, he has formed the Healing Haiti Fund and is putting pre-earthquake plans into action. In addition to being a fund-raising concert for the Haiti fund, Sunday's event was also just the second public event for Sparta High School's new auditorium, with more than a dozen local groups or soloists performing. Among the participants were singer-songwriter Janine Lid, cellist Lynda Andres and the Highpoint Harmonizers men's barbershop chorus. While Bonnet's major project is creating pre-fab medical clinics, which can provide a more permanent location, the buses are an immediate help where about 60 percent of the permanent clinics or hospitals were either destroyed or severely damaged. New Jersey education law requires school buses to be retired after 10 years of service, no matter their condition, he said. "We have been able to buy these old buses and with donated labor and help with parts, make them almost new," he explained. When completed, the buses will contain a fully stocked clinic -- utility tents can be unpacked and set up for about 600 square feet of shade, tables set up for examinations as well as paperwork, clinic supplies taken out of storage containers, and portable beds set up for those who need them. "We will be able to put someone's name into a laptop (computer) and then follow their progress each week with an ID card," Bonnet said. "A lot of this technology comes from the Iraq war and how medical help can quickly be brought to those that need it." He said local mechanics are donating their labor and Maguire Auto Group is supplying replacement parts. Kerr Graboski, an artist who lives in Sussex Borough, created the colorful design for the side of the SantéBus, which means "health bus" in French. Bonnet said Roxbury Auto sold the group the buses for about $3,000 each, and complete refurbishing and supply make the final cost between $7,000 and $10,000. The first three buses are expected to be completed and shipped to Haiti by early March with the Suburbans and more buses to follow. Two more concerts in the Healing Haiti Fund Festival are set for Saturday, and Bonnet said at least two additional concerts, including one featuring a Broadway cast, are in the planning stage. The fund, which is based in Sussex County, has raised about $50,000, and Bonnet said the goal is to raise $100,000 by the start of summer. "We are talking about a nation of six million people that need help and food, a nation of six million people sleeping under the stars." http://www.njherald.com/printerfriendly/15haiti Local doctor returns from Haiti Crammed into an army cargo plane with 200 American volunteers, Lake Hopatcong doctor Jean-Paul Bonnet made his way back to the states Wednesday after spending two weeks in Haiti assisting at the General Hospital of Port au Prince. "I really had to battle with this sense of, 'Why am I leaving?' But, I felt it was better to re-group and collect my thoughts," Bonnet said. Although he has just returned, Bonnet already is planning his next trip to Haiti. During the next three weeks, Bonnet will launch a fund-raising effort to bring medical supplies to Haiti, including two mobile medical units he plans to make out of converted school busses. "I set a goal for myself to raise $100,000. I don't think it should be that hard. If everyone in Sussex County donated a dollar, we'd have $125,000," he said. A colleague was picking up the busses Thursday while Bonnet was back to work at the Skylands Medical Practice in Hopatcong. At about $10,000 each, Bonnet has paid most of the price tag out of his own pocket. When they are finished, each bus will hold an exam table, tents, generators and general medical supplies. They also can be used to transport critically ill patients to the hospital, something that has proven difficult for the injured and their family members, who have limited access to transportation. "There are literally thousands of people that are homeless. Most of the bodies were cleaned up from the street (when I left), although there are plenty of destroyed buildings that no one has even gone near, so there will be bodies in those buildings too," Bonnet said Thursday. Even before the earthquake, most Haitian hospitals did not have electricity or running water. The hospitals are able to carry out simple operations, but advanced treatments, like chemotherapy, are unheard of in the country, he said. "Most of the hospitals there are in a state of collapse. We basically need to build a health system there," he said. Many of the medical procedures being performed during his stay were amputations. Victims suffered complex, multiple fractures when homes and other structures suddenly collapsed during the 7.0 magnitude earthquake Jan. 12. He remembered one 36-year-old woman who lost both hands and one foot, and a 16-year-old boy who lost his arm at the shoulder. "The injuries were unspeakable," he said, describing victims as looking like "shredded human bodies." Bonnet has been volunteering at various medical clinics throughout Haiti since 1996, when he was inspired by a friend to travel to the area. Although he is of French descent, he does not have any relatives in the country. Bonnet first arrived in Haiti Jan. 15. Since then, the country has been flooded with volunteers eager to offer their services. Bonnet traveled down with a group of medical volunteers from Florida. "This is our opportunity to take a third world country to a new world place with the gift of technology that was given to us by a higher power," Bonnet said. Local doctor treats Haiti quake victims; describes devastation, hope Editor’s note: Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet, of Lake Hopatcong, is among the doctors volunteering in Haiti treating survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Bonnet has been in Haiti since Jan. 15 and offered his observations in response to an e-mail contact from The New Jersey Herald. By Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet The media can only give a hint of the crisis. This is one time what you see is less than reality. Literally thousands have died, most collapsed buildings haven’t even been touched. The nursing school where I am working lost 100 students. Other than the stench of rotting bodies, no one has been able to think of trying any rescue. Wounds are so severe words cannot describe. Amputations are the hourly surgical procedure in seven field (operating rooms) we are working in. Some people have lost both hands, many both feet. Some have lost their face or part of. I came down alone and am working with a team from Florida via Santo Domingo. I am working at the general hospital of Port au Prince. Ended up here as the journey guided. Needs are everywhere. Since day one, we have had two aftershocks. One today. Most of the patients are afraid to enter the hospitals. Wounds fester and a tent campus is evolving. Two patients lost today to tetanus. In the end is there a light? Yes, there is. To see people of all nations coming together to help the poor. No color of skin, no race or religious prejudice, just the common good of the less enfranchised and victims. Today I video’d a meeting, an impromptu meeting of the Canadian, Norwegian, Israeli and Turkish Red Cross, standing side by side with one common passion to help. There-in lies the hope of a better tomorrow that maybe in fact we can let go of the fear, prejudice and hate and find our common oneness. We are all human! Is this one of my clinics? No, not yet. I have been on this journey for fourteen years, all in the planning, recognizing someday the world would come to Haiti and Haiti will shine as a beacon of humanity. The time is now. This is a journey of faith for me. Humbly to acknowledge a power greater than us. For me this is easy to see as a final exam. The question is — will we rise and help this poor impoverished nation or will we yet again have a flash in the pan and have our attention derailed by the next grotesque crisis and forget about the starving 6 million? I believe this is the time our generation rises. We can build a better tomorrow. As a generation that has suffered little compared to others, we take for granted hot water and showers, etc. It is our time to sacrifice to leave the world a better place. ... My two sons are coming down next week to help ... Need to refresh my outfits as sleeping on rocks needs better camping gear. Simply put, if the lives of the 100-or-so thousand that have died leaves the lives of the six million a little better, then their passing was not in vain. I ask all to pray for guidance, pray for those suffering, pray for a more compassionate and enlightened world, pray for peace. If anyone wants to contribute, a fund is being set up at The Haiti Fund c/o Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet 174 Edison Road Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey 07849. Peace and thanks, Doctor Jean-Paul, as I am affectionately know in Haiti. Bonnet has been treating Haiti residents for 14 years Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet, a life-long Lake Hopatcong resident and member of Skylands Medical Group, has traveled nearly every year for the past 14 years to volunteer in Haitian medical clinics. He also founded the International Modular Medical Educational Delivery Systems, a non-profit organization that is working to develop modular medical clinics and provide medical services to disadvantaged Haitians, Three days after the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Bonnet flew to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., met with other volunteers and then directly into Santo Domingo, Haiti, where he is assisting other doctors at the General Hospital of Port au Prince, his wife Mary Beth said Friday. Her husband has always been interested in helping those less fortunate, she said. A 1976 graduate of the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pa., Bonnet was nspired by a fellow alum to first travel to the economically devastated area in 1996. Although he is of French descent, he does not have any relatives in the area. “He packed his backpack one day,” Mary Beth Bonnet said. “He said, ‘I feel like I can do
something good there (in Haiti),’ and his journey started from there.” Despite all the horrific injuries he’s witnessed, Doctor Jean-Paul — as his medical associates and patients affectionately call him — has remained very calm, his wife said. “He’s been pretty calm, but it’s overwhelming. I think when you are doing it day after day, you have to be calm about it,” she said. “I know he always felt like one day, the focus would be on Haiti, and they would get the help they need, and I know he feels like this is their moment.” When visiting Haiti in the past, he has worked at medical clinics offering his services as a general family practitioner, she said. The need for doctors in the area is greater than ever, and will likely remain in high demand for a least the next several months. The call for help has inspired the Bonnets’ two oldest children, Andre, 28 and Ethan, 25, to join their father. The sons are in the process of determining when they can fly to the area. Mary Beth Bonnet said she is not sure when her husband will return to the states. He has put his private practice in Lake Hopatcong on hold for another week, but may decide to stay longer.
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