Lisa Searle loves giving back
• Dr Lisa Searle with a group of children with cleft lips, on their way to Bukavu, DRC for surgery. Image supplied.
By Daisy Baker
December 26, 2018
Working for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) became a life goal for Lisa Searle after learning about the organisation during a high school French class.
Dr Searle said at 15, something inside her clicked and she decided she too wanted to help provide medical humanitarian aid to people caught in crises around the world.
“I had always felt incredibly lucky to have the opportunities I did growing up, being acutely aware of the suffering going on in the world,” she said.
“I did everything I could to gain the skills to work in resource-poor settings, to contribute in some positive way to make the world a better place.
“I did work experience in Thailand and the Philippines, volunteered in Tanzania, completed medical school and post-graduate work (including a Diploma in Obstetrics), and applied to Médecins Sans Frontières as soon as I possibly could.”
Dr Searle has worked in a range of countries as a medical doctor for MSF since 2010, including Haiti, Kivu, and Quetta/Kuchlak in Pakistan.
She said after doing four assignments with MSF, she has developed both as a doctor and as a person, particularly in management skills and adaptability.
“Looking back at how young and inexperienced I was in my first assignment I can really notice the difference,” Dr Searle said.
“I still have moments where I think, ‘I can’t believe I have so much responsibility, that people respect my opinion so much,’ but then I must remind myself that I am in this role because I have worked for this and I have earned it.
“I have valuable skills and experience that I’ve been able to build on with each assignment.”
Most recently she went on a field assignment to Baraka, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where she was working as a Hospital Clinical Lead.
“While I was in Baraka we organised a plastic surgery team to come to the capital, Bukavu, to provide free repair of cleft lips and palates, and I spent a lot of time working with our community outreach team to locate kids in the community who would benefit,” Dr Searle said.
“We organised transport for around 20 kids. It was amazing to see their gorgeous new smiles after the surgery, and incredible to be able to make such a difference in their lives.
“The most rewarding thing for me is always the patients: the ones we can save, the lives we improve, and seeing the smiles on the faces of mothers taking their children home after they have been so sick.
“They are so grateful for our help and it is humbling to be able to affect peoples’ lives in such a profound way.
She said she encourages anyone considering working as a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières to go for it.
“You will be thrown in the deep end, out of your comfort zone in so many ways, you will see things you never imagined, you will be tested to your limits, you will meet incredible people, you will find strength in yourself that you never knew you had.
“It is difficult, but the rewards are amazing. You will change peoples’ lives and have experiences so few people ever get the opportunity to have.”