By Jacqueline Gilvard Landry
Voice correspondent

A local group dedicated to social justice and some Catholic elementary school students in the Oakland Diocese have reached across the globe to help provide clean water to villages in Uganda.

Women carry food to the well site. During construction, the entire village shares meals at the site.)

Through the Uganda Village Project, JustFaith members along with students at Piedmont’s Corpus Christi School have funded six fresh water wells in the Iganga district of eastern Uganda in the past year.

The most recent of the wells were completed last month. Their cost: $500 each.

Before the wells, villagers were getting their water from dirty ponds and streams that were shared by animals and were often miles away, said Beth Blankemeier, whose JustFaith group has financed four wells, with an ongoing effort to finance more.

Blankemeier is one of about 10 local parishioners who “graduated” from the JustFaith program at Corpus Christi Parish in 2005, but continue to meet and carry out the program’s focus on Catholic social teachings.

One of their group members, Brent Anderson, is a founder of UVP, which is affiliated with a Catholic diocese in Uganda.

UVP hosted Blankemeier in Uganda last year, where she observed the well-digging projects and brought back pictures and stories that sold the JustFaith members on the project, she said.

With a presentation on the need for clean water in villages, the JustFaith group also sold Corpus Christi School students on UVP.

The school raised $1,000 in its outreach project last fall, financing two wells, Blankemeier said.

The shallow wells take about two weeks to install, Blankemeier said. UVP provides the materials, and the Ugandan government donates the pumps.

But the labor is all supplied by the villagers, who dig, reinforce and set up the pumps for the wells. They work with a trained mason and an Iganga water official.

The wells, Blankemeier said, are dug by hand — not drilled — because construction is cheaper and villagers can maintain the wells themselves. In addition to providing labor, villagers are responsible for feeding workers during construction as well as housing the mason who does the cement work.

UVP has constructed wells in Ugandan villages including Bugole, Busanda, Budazzi, Idinda, Kimanto, Nsinze and Busiringe.

JustFaith is a 10-month program devoted to studying Catholic social teachings at the parish level. Jack Jezrell, founder of JustFaith, will offer an introductory workshop on May 18 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Isidore Church in Danville. Cost is $15 and includes a snack buffet.

For information, contact Pat Black at pattblack@sbcglobal.net, Meg Bowerman at lmjtbow@pacbell.net or John Watkins at (510) 267-8379 or jwatkins@oakdiocese.org.

This well in the village of Kimanto has wooden fencing to protect it from animals and a sloping drain that lets water (that escapes as jerry cans are filled) flow into vegetation planted next to the well.

A villager begins to dig at the well site, which will be reinforced with masonry.

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