One-woman relief effort: Elissa Montanti saves children’s lives

Elissa Montanti is not a doctor. She has no training in humanitarian relief. She has limited financial resources.

None of this has stopped her from impacting more than 100 children's lives, transporting them from war and disaster zones to the United States for much-needed medical treatment.

Montanti dedicates her life to children wounded in war. Based in Staten Island, she runs her charity, Global Medical Relief Fund, out of a converted closet in her tiny home.

Her only partner? Twenty-eight-year-old Kenan Malkic, the boy who first inspired her endeavour.

Watch Kenan Malkic's remarkable story, as featured on CBS' 60 Minutes Overtime, below.

In 1996, a friend asked Montanti to raise money for school supplies in Bosnia. When she met with the Bosnian Ambassador to the U.N., he showed her a letter he'd received. Malkic, then only 11, was asking for two new arms and a leg; a landmine had destroyed his body.

Montanti knew she had to help, and bought Malkic to the U.S. for treatment.

Since then, Montanti has rescued 112 injured children from war-torn countries and disaster areas, connecting them with free life-altering medical treatments.

Running her organization "on a prayer," she negotiates and pleads with doctors and travels overseas to sort out passports and paperwork, counting on generous donors to cover expenses.

She gets a dozen emails a month just from Iraq; five children are due to arrive from Afghanistan and Iraq next week. While the charity is small, Global Medical Relief offers hope to children in seemingly hopeless situations.