TIPS, ADVICE, & INSPIRATION
Footprints in the Dust: The Story of Nurse Roberta Gately
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EveryNurse Staff
- Last Updated: 05/16/2019
Survival, compassion, and hope are three words that should jump out at any nurse. Now add to them: war, drought, poverty, and destitution and you get an idea of what nurse Roberta Gately saw during her years serving countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa. She took her skills to the next level by nursing some of the most desperate patients in the world’s most horrific war zones.
Footprints in the Dust: Survival, Compassion, and Hope with Refugees Around the World is a memoir by Roberta Gately that shares stories of her extraordinary experiences as a humanitarian aid worker and nurse in countries where many face fear and danger each day.
About Roberta Gately
Roberta Gately started her career working in an emergency room in Boston. Each day the news presented her with stories and images of starving children and displaced families running from war.
After seeing a news piece about an aid organization that sends volunteers into these regions to provide health care, Gately chose to leave Boston and travel to places full of unspeakable horrors. She knew her calling was to nurse those who needed her help the most.
In the 1980s, this life-changing decision sent her to work as a nurse along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border caring for Afghan refugees. In 2002, she was part of a French delegation sent to provide health care to villagers in Bamiyan. She spent time working in refugee camps in Africa, as well, as nursing those with diseases and trauma that are rarely seen in the U.S.
Today, she is the author of three well-received books that talk about her experiences abroad. Footprints in the Dust is Gately’s second novel. Her premier work titled Lipstick in Afghanistan tells the somewhat autobiographical, yet fictional, story of a nurse who heads to the male-dominated world of Afghanistan.
Footprints in the Dust: The Story
Published in 2018 by Pegasus Books, Footprints in the Dust is a 308-page memoir of the years Roberta Gately spent in war-torn regions and the people she encountered there. Unlike Lipstick in Afghanistan, Footprints is based on true life experience and is taken from her postings in a personal journal.
Footprints shares heartfelt stories of horrors most people can only imagine as well as the steps she took to protect her life in countries that hated Americans and women. The tone of the book is journalistic and written to take readers beyond the headlines to see the realities of nursing amid war and poverty.
Gately recounts these encounters from the perspective of both a nurse and a woman. She talks of her effort to heal refugees both physically and emotionally, bringing each story to life with images that will haunt her readers.
Footprints in the Dust: The Reviews
Footprints in the Dust: Nursing, Survival, Compassion, and Hope with Refugees Around the World by Roberta Gately has met with positive reviews from both critics and readers.
- Artesian Book Reviews calls Footprints in the Dust an eye-opening and thought-provoking book. The reviewer states it leaves the reader feeling inspired and grateful to volunteers like Roberta Gately who put their own lives on hold to help others.
- Author Evan Thomas calls the book a tale of a big heart in a broken world.
- Author Yona Zeldis McDonough says Gately writes stories that come to life in the reader’s imagination. “Read it and weep.”
- The Library Journal praises Footprints it is a must-read for those with an interest in the plight of refugees.
Amazon reviewers give the book five stars with comments like:
- The author takes us to these countries through her detailed journals and photographs…This book will leave you humbled.
- …lives of refugees through the eyes of someone who was there.
- “Courageous and inspiring…”
- “Written with her heart and soul…”
Footprints in the Dust is the winner of the American Book Fest Narrative Nonfiction Best Book award and the Nautilus Awards 2018 Silver Award winner for Journalism and Investigative Reporting.
Volunteer Abroad Options for Nurses
Nurses have many choices these days if they decide they want to help people living in countries where medical and health resources are scarce. A large number of international and domestic organizations assist nurses and other healthcare professionals to travel abroad where they can apply their specialized skills in ways that benefit underserved populations. A few notable organizations include:
Nurses who would like to pursue volunteer opportunities abroad must also consider the costs of participating in volunteer programs. Fees and costs can add up quickly when you consider plane tickets, program fees, travel insurance, and the day-to-day costs of living away from home.
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