In 2003, Dr. Jessie Stone was paddling down the Nile River when everything changed. Despite taking all the necessary precautions — including sleeping under mosquito nets and taking prophylaxis — trip leader and legendary whitewater paddler Eric Jackson got malaria. She ended up treating him and began to wonder what happened to the local residents.

Dr. Stone quickly discovered that local residents did not understand how malaria was transmitted, and none of them owned a mosquito net. The people most impacted by malaria knew even less about the disease than she did. It was a confluence of events that would change her life forever.

Today, Dr. Stone runs a successful primary healthcare clinic and nonprofit, Soft Power Health, that treats a wide variety of health problems, and six dedicated health education outreach programs for malaria, malnutrition, family planning, domestic violence, organic gardening, and physiotherapy.

In this interview, Dr. Stone discusses how the two great branches of her life  — medicine and kayaking — finally merged on the world's longest river.

How did you start kayaking?
When I was at UC Berkeley, I had a summer job working in a large office building in San Francisco. It was awful. I remember thinking, “I’m never doing this again — I need to be outside.” I got a summer job working as a whitewater rafting guide on rivers in California. It was perfect. I continued rafting and had some great opportunities, which included getting a job as a whitewater rafting guide on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. I continued raft guiding while earning my undergraduate degree and before attending medical school. I guided at a place that also offered kayaking lessons. That’s where I discovered the sport and instantly fell in love with it.

Balancing medical school and teaching kayaking must have been challenging. How did you manage?
I kept finding ways to take time off and return to the water. The dean was supportive but, eventually, just wanted me to graduate. So, I earned my MD and decided to take a break from medicine and commit to kayaking full-time. I became a professional kayaker, earned a spot on the national team, and secured some sponsorships.
 
How did kayaking bring you back to medicine?
In 2003, I had the opportunity to kayak on the Nile River. The person who organized the trip, Eric Jackson, got malaria despite sleeping under a mosquito net and taking prophylaxis. While treating him, I wondered how local people protected themselves from malaria. I was introduced to a woman from  Kyabirwa village, a small farming and fishing village located on the banks of the Nile River in Uganda, who spoke the native language and English. We conducted a fifty-home survey and learned that nobody knew how malaria is transmitted, treated, or prevented. It was an eye-opening experience. Many people who don’t have experience on the ground assume that if you are constantly interacting with the disease, you understand how it works. But that's not true at all. Education is necessary.
 

What did this experience inspire you to do?
We spoke to the mayor of the village, and he helped us organize an education session for the community. People were incredibly interested and wanted more information. Leadership from the village next door wanted us to come present to them. It was a great experience to have such buy-in and support from the local community. That was our true beginning. Sometimes, people want to help others, but their support is ill-advised or does more harm than good. I did not want to do that.
 
How did the clinic evolve from outreach education?
The mayor of Kyabirwa asked if we could open a clinic and offered to donate land. I said yes, even though I had no idea how to run one or really anything about starting a clinic. I had done a medical school rotation in Kenya, but this was new territory. After we raised $25,000 back in the States, we opened The Allan Stone Community Health Clinic in 2006 — just two years after our first outreach efforts.

After working in Uganda for twenty years, what are you most proud of?
I’m proud that we can consistently provide affordable or subsidized primary healthcare — something that’s incredibly scarce in Uganda. In the US, there's one doctor for every 340 people. In Uganda, the ratio is one to 25,000. Making a difference in people's lives through healthcare and education is incredibly gratifying. And employing 100 local community members means we’re also supporting families who can survive and help their children get an education.
 
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced?
The need is overwhelming. Our model is education, prevention, and treatment – a wholistic approach that encourages people to help themselves and not just be on a cycle of treatment only. We’ve grown from prevention and education to include treatment, reaching 35,000 patients yearly through the clinic and an additional 20,000 through outreach. But all of it requires funding, and that’s always a challenge. The recent USAID cuts have led to many more patients at our doors.

What is next for Soft Power?
We are working on developing a program for cervical cancer screening and treatment. In Uganda, it is the biggest cancer killer of women, and in the US, it is something that has nearly been eliminated.
 
How would you compare launching your health clinic to setting off on a kayaking adventure?
Starting the clinic felt like paddling an unknown river. You don’t know what’s around the bend or what kind of rapids are coming next. There are calm stretches where you catch your breath, but something always comes up. Like kayaking, running a clinic requires teamwork, adaptability, and creative problem-solving.
 
In addition to running a health clinic, you also run a summer kayaking camp. Tell us about it.
In 2002, a friend and I started a camp to help introduce inner city, underserved youth to kayaking. Many of our campers do not know what kayaking is or even how to swim. We start in a swimming pool, progress to flat water, and end up in moving water by the end of the week.

What motivates you to make a difference in the lives of those in need?
The work is so rewarding. It's like a self-fulfilling cycle. I want to keep doing my work because it's positive, interesting, fun, and challenging. Though it sometimes feels like a huge responsibility, it engages me in a way I hope everyone can experience in their own work. It's like my baby. I want to keep it going. It would be awful at this point if it just disappeared. So many people have come to depend on Soft Power Health for basic healthcare. It’s become a lifeline for so many people, and I’m committed to keeping it going — no matter what.
 
If you were to give an alumni Chapel Talk, what would you say?
Growth comes from challenge and opening your eyes to the broader world. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Spend time in nature, away from your phone. Try things that scare you — because that’s how you grow. If something intrigues you but makes you nervous, try it anyway. You have little to lose and so much to gain.

Photo credit on all images: Eli Reichman
 

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