When Sol Henson took a trip to Africa three years ago, he didn't know that the vacation would change his life, and the lives of hundreds of people in villages in southwestern Uganda.

Henson, 30, had just graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a master's degree in hydrology and was taking a long-needed break before looking for employment. But his vacation turned into a job when he visited a medical clinic in Bwindi, Uganda, established by Nevada County physician Scott Kellermann and his wife, Carol.

“Because of my background in hydrology and water quality, Scott asked if I wanted to go out with his community health worker to look at different water sources,” said Henson, a lifelong resident of Nevada County who grew up on the San Juan Ridge

What he found at the first site he visited was appalling.

“The villagers were literally collecting their drinking water from a dirty pool that was just 30 meters away from a spring that was once a protected, clean water source,” he recounted.

It didn't take long to discover why: tree roots and vegetation were choking the basin and pipes that had been built to collect the spring's water. It was a problem that wouldn't be difficult to correct, Henson remembers thinking to himself.

“It seemed that with only a small amount of encouragement and resources, this community could start collecting clean water again,” he said. “And by avoiding contaminated surface water like the pool they were using, they'd be able to reduce their high incidence of childhood diarrheal diseases and deaths.”

Rotary grant for clean water, sanitation projects

Now Henson is heading a four-year project supported by Rotary International to help about 5,000 people in a dozen communities in the Bwindi area develop low-tech sanitation and clean water facilities. After spending a year in Uganda, he is back in Nevada County for a break before returning to Africa later this month.

On January 7 and 12, Henson and the project's construction consultant, Tor Erickson, will be presenting a slideshow and talking about the ups and downs of their first year working with the Batwa and Bakiga people of Bwindi. (see sidebar)

The project is an outgrowth of the support that local and district Rotary clubs have been providing the Bwindi Community Health Center since shortly after the Kellermanns established it in 2001, said Wyn Spiller, past district governor for Rotary district 5190, which covers northeastern California and most of Nevada.

The Kellermann's initial goal was to provide medical care for a group of several hundred Batwa who had been removed from their ancestral land in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, ostensibly to protect the park's population of endangered mountain gorillas. When the clinic started expanding to serve the 25,000 residents of this remote corner of Uganda, Rotary expanded its efforts as well, supporting a diversity of projects both at the clinic and in outlying villages, Spiller said.

Even before Henson's first visit to Bwindi, Nevada City Rotary Club member Don Fultz had been working on an ambitious proposal to address the water and sanitation needs of the area. With input from a survey Henson conducted while in Bwindi, Fultz's efforts garnered a $231,000 “Health, Hunger and Humanity grant” from Rotary International — the largest kind of grant that the organization offers.

“Most of the credit for the success of this project goes to the outstanding work that Sol and Tor are doing,” Fultz said. “There are only about 10 of these grants awarded worldwide each year, so it really is a big honor for our little club and our grant partner, the Rotary Club of Kabale, Uganda, to be among the few recipients.”

Designated for large, long-term international self-help and grassroots development projects, each 3-H grant is designed to use an integrative approach to address humanitarian needs, according to Rotary International's Web site.

From the San Juan Ridge to Bwindi

Henson and Erickson were classmates from the time they attended Head Start pre-school on the San Juan Ridge through graduation from Nevada Union High School in 1997. At that point, Henson headed to UC Davis, graduating with a B.S. in biochemistry, while Erickson went to Grinnell College in Iowa, where he obtained a B.A. in history.

Henson taught school for a year and a half and then worked as a research assistant in the water chemistry lab at UC Davis before starting graduate studies. Meanwhile, Erickson turned to construction, landing a job remodeling houses in Berkeley. Having grown up a stone's throw from the workshop of his father, professional furniture maker Robert Erickson, the younger Erickson had acquired the skills of his trade at an early age. He soon went into business for himself and moved to Washington, where he obtained a contractor's license.

“I had the expertise to test water sources and track down what was polluting them,” Henson said. “But someone with Tor's range of skills was going to be absolutely necessary for all the construction aspects of the project. So I started badgering him to come to Uganda with me.”

Henson returned to Bwindi in September 2008. By the time Erickson arrived three months later, Henson had met with representatives from more than 10 communities and analyzed over 100 water samples.

From the outset, the two men agreed that the success of their work depended on the full support of the people they were working with. When it became apparent that such an approach would require months of community meetings to educate people about sanitation and develop feasible methods of protecting water sources, Erickson extended his original two-month stay to four months.

The success of their approach is already apparent, Fultz said. In half of the 20 communities that have now been surveyed, people are ready to get to work building latrines and protective structures for water supplies. Water sources that benefit more than 1,500 people have already been protected or repaired. After designing a low-cost, durable latrine structure that can be built from locally-available materials, Erickson led a month-long, intensive workshop that trained four Batwa men in the building skills necessary to construct them.

With Henson set to return for another six months, and Erickson planning on returning for a year, the project is set to take off.

“By involving the communities at a very grass roots level, these two young men are already making a real difference,” Fultz said. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in Africa right now for projects that will ultimately fail, because no one in the villages takes ownership. But by insisting on the participation of the Batwa and Bakiga people, Sol and Tor are ensuring that the structures that are built are built well and that they will be maintained and used for decades into the future.”

It should be noted that Rotary grants do not cover salaries, transportation or living expenses for volunteers, so in addition to donating their time, Henson and Erickson have also dug into their own pocketbooks to support the project. Henson has already raised the money required to support his next six months in Uganda and Erickson is working on various fundraisers for the $8,000 that will cover his expenses in the coming year.

San Juan Ridge resident Liese Greensfelder has worked as a public information officer covering science, medicine and engineering research for three University of California campuses. She is a freelance science writer whose articles have appeared in such publications as Science, UC Davis Medicine and California Wild.

BENEFIT AND SLIDESHOW TONIGHT

Sol Henson and Tor Erickson will present a slideshow “Pit Latrines, Exorcisms, and Pygmies” on their year of community work with the Batwa in southwestern Uganda at 7 p.m. at Trinity Church, 202 High Street in Nevada City.

Suggested donation for the show is $10. All proceeds will benefit Erickson and Henson's continuing work in Uganda in collaboration with Rotary International and local Rotary clubs.

Erickson and his father, furniture maker Robert Erickson, will also be making one of Robert's “floating back rocking chairs” to help underwrite Tor's out-of-pocket expenses for the project.

One of these chairs, designed and made by the senior Erickson, is in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The chair was featured in the October issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine in an article about the influence of legendary craftsman Sam Maloof on Ericks.on and three other American furniture makers.

The chair is being offered for $6,000, slightly below standard price. It will be custom fit to the buyer, and can be made in a variety of woods.

Readers can call Erickson at (530) 292-4248 for more information about these fundraisers, or for information about where to send tax-deductible donations for the project.