WINSTON Churchill, famous for his wit and wisdom once said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” For a group of medical professionals who travel to some of the world’s poorest countries every few months to perform life-changing medical procedures, these are words they live by.One of these is Oddrun Farestad who works as an Intensive Care Unit recovery nurse at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH). Three times a year she packs her bags and travels to far-flung forgotten regions of the world where she literally helps put smiles on children’s faces.

Miss Farestad is a volunteer on Project Change Bermuda, a charity that provides comprehensive re-constructive plastic surgery to children in Third World countries.

Made up of a dedicated team of volunteer doctors, nurses, health-care administrators and staff, they provide their services free of charge and aim to make their patients “whole” through life changing surgeries.

Two weeks ago Miss Farestad accompanied a group led by plastic surgeon, Dr. Christopher Johnson, to a remote part of Ecuador where they spent two weeks treating almost 150 children — a fraction of the number who line up every morning in the hopes of being helped.

It was hot, wet and the facilities in a military hospital were less than adequate, but Miss Farestad says over the years they have learnt to cope by taking every piece of medical equipment with them — a logistical nightmare for American Airlines, she adds with a giggle, as the equipment is taken as excess baggage.

During their two-week stay in the jungles of Ecuador, they treated various medical conditions including cleft palate/cleft lip reconstruction, burn reconstruction and reconstruction to children born without ears (microtia repair).

“Dr. Johnson is extremely good at making ears ... they do that in two stages, which is why the mission always goes back to the same area, so that people can come back for stage two of the procedure,” she explained.

The medical team treated between 70 and 75 children each week, which meant starting at 7 a.m. and working sometimes until well after sunset.

The medical volunteers pay their own way — including the flights and hotel expenses — while the medical equipment is generally covered by Dr. Johnson’s private clinic. Blankets, shoes, toys, diapers, children’s Tylenol and infant formula is donated by members of the public before each mission.

Because some of the locations are so remote, Miss Farestad says authorities will always try and find them a hostel or hotel nearby - not always successfully. Recalling one mission to a very remote area she said: “We slept in hammocks and I was dying for a hot shower after two weeks,” she said.

“You definitely can not have any divas down there! You don’t get your make-up done and it’s rough!”

She added that she keeps asking herself why she keeps volunteering, especially when the weather is atrocious and the facilities they work in are “unbelievably primitive” with snakes in the bathtubs and no running water.

“But the ambience in the operating room between the group is unique and I think I do it for selfish reasons now because I get so much back from doing it. To see the children and their families’ faces when you bring them out and they look different and they know they will recover ... it’s such a deep happiness that nothing else can compare to what you get from being involved.”

She said word spreads that the team are coming to an area and they find people have walked for up to three days to get their children to the hospital and parents are so hopeful their children will get the surgery they need that they fast for the entire journey.

Miss Farestad says it breaks her heart to see thousands of parents lined up and knowing that only a few can, and will be helped.

“There will be hundreds of thousands of them waiting, sometimes for days,” she said.

“That’s the hardest part ... to see so many people and yes you can operate all day, but you have to stop sometime. There is such a massive need and with every mission the group seems to get bigger and the patients seem to get younger.”

Having grown up in poverty-stricken Cameroon to missionary parents, Miss Farestad said she was brought up to believe that helping others was the most important thing in life, and when her family returned to Norway, she found the adjustment very hard.

“I struggled for a long time because I was suddenly living in such a rich country, so I started travelling with other (medical) organisations in Europe and when I came to Bermuda I joined Operation Smile and now Project Change Bermuda.”

She volunteers for missions between three and five times a year and recently joined the International Medical Alliance, a similar organisation, but larger, which also travels to Third World countries and helps about 2,500 children outside the operating theatre with various ailments including asthma, while also providing reading glasses and prosthetic limbs.

Miss Farestad recalls one little boy in Ecuador who came in for an operation wearing flip-flops and when he woke up nurses had placed a pair of donated soccer boots on his feet.

“He could not believe his eyes when he woke up and saw those shoes,” she says with a laugh.

Volunteers also distributed handmade knitted toys, made and donated by Bermudians, as well as blankets and she says they are always appealing for not only monetary donations to purchase medication, but also diapers, children’s Tylenol, pediaprofen, infant formula and shoes.

As part of the charity’s fundraising efforts, a special “Casablanca Casino Nights” event is being held at Elbow Beach this weekend. Tickets can be purchased for $200 from Dr. Johnson’s office at International Plastic Surgery Associates, Sea Venture Building, 19 Parliament Street in Hamilton, or by calling 292-2000.