Dick Smith Shelter

Last week I visited Panjshir Valley. I saw the new Dick Smith Shelter - project name "Panjshir Valley Community Centre".

The Dick Smith Shelter is located in Panjshir Valley (Onaba District) which is two and a half hours away from Kabul. The foundations and the first floor are almost finished.

The design of the building is similar to Hope House with many improvements including an emergency exit in case of fire and additional storage.

The surrounding wall is double brick and solid concrete - it looks very strong. The first floor looks like the second floor because the building is on a hill. From the roof there is a very nice view of all the village and the surrounding green trees which look like a forest. If I stand on the roof for a few minutes it feels like looking out in Sydney. The shelter is located next to medical center which has been run by the French for many years. On the right-hand side of the building there was a police station and across the road there is a primary school and high school which is government-run.

This was Dick Smith and I discussing the project in his Sydney office

Within walking distance there is a Western-style emergency hospital with all facilities for any kind of operation. The doctors who work there come from  overseas as well as Afghan professional doctors.

Onaba is popular area with shops and markets which bring people from other villages to gather.

I think Sidiq and his team have done a great job with this project. To have a land for free in this area with such a good location and many existing facilities around it is too good to be true. Maybe this project is lucky because of ‘Dick Smith Luck.’

The construction men come from Pakistan. Sidiq knows them through other projects. They work together with an Afghan local builder and an engineer working together side by side. I am so impressed the outcome of this building. It already looks good.

They dug the well which is 30 metres deep and the quality of the water is good.

There are still a number of things that need to be done and need more funding

On the site of the building they need to build a few rooms separate from the orphanage for the office.

They also need to build the toilet and the bathroom; the toilet will be a compost toilet. As usual In Afghanistan, people build the toilet and bathroom out side.

The landscaping needs to be fixed and all the doors, windows, painting and floors need to be installed.

They will finish the building within three months. At the moment they have run out of money. A rough estimate of the cost is $100,000 to finish the building. .

When we built Hope House 5 years ago the price of construction material was much cheaper than now, however, this project has cost us less than Hope House even though we have paid more for construction material and transport cost.