In my limited travels through three developing countries (Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua), I have seen several standard yellow school buses that were sent there after school districts in the U.S. no longer wanted them. Some still had the names of their original districts. Mostly they were then used for a wide variety of local transportation. That’s fine. I have been told that a standard school bus, if properly maintained, can last for several hundred thousand miles.
A more innovative use is through a Christian organization called BUSES International (in Lorain, OH — near Cleveland). They take used or new school buses and other vehicles and rebuild them into travelling medical and dental clinics.
It also happens that the Bendix Corporation (famous for making brakes) is close to BUSES and donated a standard school bus with only 20,000 miles on it after being exclusively used for brake testing purposes.
BUSES then did an “extreme makeover” by removing the seats, putting in separate rooms, adding a special generator for electricity, air conditioning, and other equipment, putting a durable vinyl cover on the outside to designate its use, and turning it into a mobile medical and dental clinic for a pastor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Rev. Jean-Martin Etienne — whom I know very well) so it could be used in his church’s outreach ministries. Then they filled it with medical equipment and supplies — mostly from MedWish International in Cleveland. It arrived a few months ago and is now being put to good use in helping people with various health problems.
Two of the major problems at BUSES is the fact that there are far more requests than they can handle (at least now) and raising the necessary funds.
I am happy to endorse what BUSES is doing in Haiti and elsewhere.
Additional note: In 2016 BUSES changed their name to Mobile Outreach Solutions and introduced some new products. Their website is www.mobileoutreachsolutions.com