Dr. Jessie Stone, Team JK paddler, and friend tells her story about helping Uganda prevent Malaria

March 1, 2005

After 10 months of planning and fundraising stateside,
Anna Levesque and I returned to Uganda to continue the Malaria education
and prevention project that we began in January 2004 with the help of
Ugandan based non-profit, Soft Power Education and Kyabirwa village local
Jessica Mugerwa. Joining us this time were Alex Nicks and Lissa Potter,
a social worker from New York City and aspiring paddler. On this trip,
we were adding on the project of helping to build a rural clinic in the
Kyabirwa village. We also had access to cheap mosquito nets. As most paddlers
know by now, Uganda is home not only to some of the world’s best whitewater
on the mighty Nile river but also to one of the world’s worst Malaria
problems! EJ is actually responsible for getting me started in this project.
If he had not gotten Malaria when we were paddling there for the first
time in January of 2003, I never would have known about the seriousness
of this problem! Malaria is the biggest infectious disease killer worldwide.
500 million people get Malaria annually and 3 million children die from
Malaria each year mostly in Africa. Malaria is the biggest killer of Ugandan
children and is responsible for the majority of miscarriages and maternal
health problems. Most Ugandans do not have access to health education
and therefore know very little about the disease, including how to protect
themselves! Sleeping under a mosquito net can reduce the incidence of
Malaria by 50%. Because the cost of everything is so cheap in Uganda,
it is possible to acquire mosquito nets very inexpensively. For example,
one mosquito net costs 5 US dollars and can last for up to 6 years. Building
a clinic here is also a reasonable undertaking, even on a paddler’s salary.
All of these facts along with the incredible proximity of the mighty Nile
made the decision to continue and grow our project an easy one. My medical
education has not gone to waste after all! We picked up where we left
off. Staying at the lively Nile River Explorer’s camp just a five-minute
walk from the village and a two-minute walk to the river made our commute
ideal. No driving and very short shuttles. When we finished working in
the village, we had easy access to great whitewater. In the time between
our last visit to Uganda and now, I set up a US based non-profit called
Soft Power Health. We are working in conjunction with Soft Power Education,
and they have been instrumental in helping us build the clinic. When we
arrived the foundation for the clinic was just being put down. During
the next couple of weeks we split our time between laying bricks at the
clinic and going back into the field with Jessica to interview families
about Malaria and do follow up on mosquito net distribution. It’s been
an incredible learning experience. Who knew you could lay bricks, hang
up mosquito nets in huts and surf some of the best waves in the world
all in one day?? World Class Kayak Academy also visited our building site
and pitched in with building and hut visits. It is exciting to see so
much interest in our project throughout the kayaking community and beyond.
We continued our community Malaria education sessions and sold cheap mosquito
nets to over 350 people in the village. The clinic is just about done
with the finishing touches such as the solar power system and water catchment
soon to come. For me, the most gratifying part has been to do the follow
up hut visits for people who have bought nets. So far it appears that
people are hanging up their nets and sleeping under them, so our educational
sessions are paying off.

In the future, we plan to continue the malaria education
and prevention programs with the help of our local Malaria educator, Jessica
Mugerwa and expand to surrounding villages. We hope to train more local
Malaria educators and get as many nets out to people as we can. A local
Uganda doctor and nurse will be employed at the clinic, and we hope to
continue our volunteer program for medical and non-medical people who
are interested in donating their time! And that means ANYBODY who is interested,
I would really like to hear from! We are planning for an April 2005 opening
of the Soft Power Health clinic. Anna wants to donate a portion of the
sales from her upcoming video Girls at Play 2 to our project. Lissa is
hard at work fund raising in New York. Alex is editing a short film about
our project and there is a rumor on the street that the Jackson Family
maybe back to help out in 2006! Funny how one episode of Malaria could
turn into a life changing adventure!