4 minute read
Teach and Treat is the Jackson Foundation Mantra
Teach and Treat is the Jackson Foundation Mantra
By Leonard Shapiro
The long-time motto for the Middleburg-based Jackson Clinics Foundation has always been “Teach One, Treat Many.” That’s the title of a recent documentary on the foundation’s work—training physical therapists in Kenya and several other African nations, who then go on to treat countless patients.
And over the last 13 years, it’s more like “Teach Many, Treat Millions.”
Richard and Anna Jackson are long-time Middleburg residents and founded The Jackson Clinics in 2003.They have 18 Northern Virginia locations. Richard and Anna, who specializes in technology, marketing and human resources for the clinics, have dedicated themselves to training therapists in under-developed nations that desperately need upgrading their education and clinical skills.
They began that work in 2010 after one of their clinic directors, an Ethiopian, left the U.S. and returned home to educate therapists in his native land. Richard had served in the Peace Corps in Nairobi, Kenya in the late 1970s, where he wrote a textbook on kinesiology and also taught physical therapy to Kenyan students. Africa was familiar territory.
At the time, Ethiopia, with a population of 85 million, had only 250 physical therapists. That’s when he and Anna decided to fund their own foundation to help improve those numbers. They started a PT residency program in Addis Ababa University’s medical school. They also partnered with Regis University to establish the first doctoral program in physical therapy on the African continent. Their first group of 17 students graduated in 2017.
“Anna and I had wanted to develop an international service opportunity for our staff members,” Richard said. “We both believe very strongly in service and helping other people. I once had a patient from Iran, an economics professor, and we were talking about service one day and he said, ‘really, how many steaks can you eat?’”
Many Jackson Clinic employees have taught a variety of different African programs the foundation helps support with Kenya now the center of activity.
In 2012, the foundation launched an Orthopedic Manual Therapy Residency Program (OMT), a partnership with the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) in Nairobi. Ever since, over 160 volunteer doctors of physical therapy have gone to Kenya doing two-week rotations that included classroom teaching or clinical mentoring. Volunteers come from Jackson’s staff, and colleges and universities around the U.S.
In 2018, the foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with AMREF International University based in Nairobi to begin a Bachelor of Science degree program and a bachelor’s upgrade program for all Kenya diploma holders. In 2022, the first 17 physiotherapists graduated, and in July this year, 42 more graduated.
The addition of digital education allows many students to continue working at their jobs while working on their upgrade diplomas. The Jackson Foundation is also educating therapists in Tanzania, and Uganda.
All of this comes at a cost. Over the years, only about $50,000 in outside donations have gone to the foundation, and the Jacksons have contributed considerably more.
“We’re not very good at fundraising,” Richard said. “With inflation, it’s getting harder all the time for students to afford tuition.”
Tuition is $2,000 a year, including soon to start Masters programs in orthopedics, cardio-pulmonary and rehabilitation. (For more information on how to donate, go to www.teachandtreat.org).
“I don’t think we started out with a clear vision other than we wanted to help fill that gap a little bit at a time,” Anna Jackson said in the documentary.
But it’s clearly not been just a little bit.
“How many lives have our programs touched?” Richard Jackson wondered out loud. “It’s in the millions, for sure.”
