Alisha Gabriel is used to working in a state-of-the-art hospital, but this March she will be trading in all her modern tools, and comforts, to spend a week helping children in disadvantaged parts of Honduras.

The Bermudian medical student will be part of a mobile medical mission team, charged with driving to remote rural areas and seeing children who can’t typically get to hospitals in the main cities.

During the course of the week, they are expecting to see roughly 850 children.

“We will have a stethoscope, and our clinical skills, and that’s about it when we get there,” said the 25-year-old.

“On the last trip my school went on, they didn’t even have a scale to measure the kids. In paediatrics all the medicines are administered based on weight, so they had to eyeball things. I think that’s going to be challenging, but really beneficial, to learn to work with just the basics.”

Ms Gabriel is in her second year of a medical residency programme with Western University in Ontario, but she is taking a break from that work to complete a master’s degree in public health at Oxford University — where she is currently the Bermuda Rhodes Scholar.

Although this will be her first time practicing medicine in a developing country, it’s something she has always wanted to do.

She was recently inspired to take the leap after hearing two doctors from India talk about their experiences.

“They gave us their perspective of what it’s like to work in a hospital there, and I was really touched because we tend to forget how blessed we are to have so many facilities, and so much equipment,” she said. “They were telling us they have one warmer for newborn babies to share and we have maybe around 20 or 30.”

Ms Gabriel understands the trip won’t be all a piece of cake.

In addition to the high volume of children they will be seeing, the team will also have to adjust quickly to a new culture and language — not to mention get used to travelling for hours to reach different locations.

“The interesting thing about Honduras is that the infrastructure is poor and to get to the outskirts may only be a distance of 70 kilometres, but it takes about four hours to get there,” she said. “While in any other developed country it would only take you about an hour.”

However, she believes the rewards will outweigh any challenges and is looking forward to seeing what kind of impact she can make in the lives of people she meets.

Ms Gabriel has wanted to be a doctor since she was around age three or four.

She said a career in medicine was “the most natural choice” and admitted she couldn’t imagine having a desk job as she enjoys being active.

In order to become a paediatrician she has to complete six years of medical school and five years of a residency programme.

“It’s a long haul so you really have to be passionate about it,” she said.

“On television they make medicine looks so glamorous but in reality it’s not. It’s working 100 hours a week and being up at all hours, not being able to shower when you are on call wearing scrubs and it’s a really tough job, especially with children it’s emotional and physically draining.”

However it’s those moments when you get to help some of the most vulnerable children and see them get well that make it worth while, she said. “Those shining moments they don’t come very often, but when they do it’s so fulfilling,” she added.

Ms Gabriel is currently in the process of raising money to help pay for medical supplies to take on their journey to Gracias, Honduras.

A pharmaceutical company will be donating ten boxes of medicine, worth $5,000 each. The company is only charging them $500 per box.

She encourages anyone who can donate even a few dollars to help with the cause.

“It’s a hard economic time for people so even people in Bermuda are having trouble living there, so any little bit helps,” she said.

Anyone interested in donating can email hondurasmission2014@gmail.com; or for more information visit Ms Gabriel’s blog: http://hondurasmission2014.wordpress.com.