Jefferson Doctor Survived Kidnapping, Still Helping Heal Haiti

Jefferson's Dr. Jean-Paul Bonnet has taken several trips to Haiti, survived a kidnapping, and at times worked in medical clinics when "there were so many serious injuries, you just didn't know who to help first."

"It's been a spiritual journey for me," Bonnett,  founder of the Skylands Medical Group and graduate of , said of his quest to help residents of Haiti.

That journey dates back to 1996, when he first heard a radio program asking for help and supplies in Haiti. His first trip came in June of that year, and he found much he wanted to do.

"I'd looked in the encyclopedia, because Wikipedia wasn't widely available in 1996, and I found out that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere," he said.

Looking into what he felt most needed to be done, he decided to try and build a health system in the country.  And so was born the Healing Haiti Fund.

"I want to make a full health system with clinics and hospitals, but I want to make it a sustainable, profitable business entity owned by all; then the profits could pay for the health care system," Bonnet said.

During one of his many trips to Haiti in search of that goal, he was traveling with some guides during the night when they found themselves kidnapped by a vigilante group that was angry over the killing of one of the group's relatives.

"I felt surprisingly calm during the kidnapping," he said. "I thought that if it was God's will that I die this way, then he must have a reason. But I truly felt I had more to do in Haiti, and I felt I would be spared."

After acting as a peacemaker between his group and the vigilante group, he and his companions were allowed after several hours to move on to their destination, a hospital where Bonnet was working with an international group of doctors who were gathering in Haiti to work on the health care system.

He has continued work toward his goal over the years, and since last year's major earthquake in Haiti, Bonnet has been working on creating SantéBus, French for "healing bus." His goal is to obtain donations to convert used school buses or SUVs into mobile clinics.

Each bus would have a route throughout the regions hardest hit by the earthquake, and contain the most necessary medical implements to help those victims. Bonnet's goal is to have each bus have a driver who can speak French, English and Kreyòl, and a medical team that can treat such ailments as amputations that resulted from injuries suffered during the quake. Besides all the inner retrofitting that takes place in each bus, each is repainted with artwork designed by Sussex Borough artist Kerr Grabowski.

"I know there is so much more to be done in Haiti, but I truly feel that the earthquake was a blessing in disguise," Bonnet said. "If the earthquake brought international attention to the lives of nine million people, then the 100,000-plus lives that were taken are not in vain."