In 1979, Thor and Debi Armstrong began working to help the Afghan refugees flooding into Pakistan. The former Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan to topple the fledgling Republic which plunged the country into chaos and resulted in the flight of 5 million Afghans to neighboring countries. Together with a team of volunteers, they developed a Multi-purpose Geodesic Dome Project for Afghan refugees with initial funding from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The project was a success and completed the construction of thousands of pre-cast concrete dome homes for the refugees and provided a much needed transition away from tent shelters.

The UN-issued tents only lasted a few months in the harsh climate and were proving expensive in the long run. Permanent housing wasn’t an option for 3 million uninvited guests, so a new kind of low-cost and long-lasting transitional shelter was desperately needed. Using a geodesic dome for inspiration, the team designed, built and tested a prototype “dome home” in one of the refugee camps. This quickly caught the attention of the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the rest, as they say is history. We founded Shelter Now International and continued to work with the Afghan people for the last 40 years.

In addition to the major funding from UNHCR and project support from the Pakistan Government, we worked with several mission groups, churches and international supporters to build thousands of modular, prefab concrete geodesic dome homes and other types of shelters for the flood of refugees pouring in from Afghanistan. This eventually led to developing all kinds shelter and related projects working with refugees and displaced people in over 14 countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kurdistan, Tajikistan, India, Sri Lanka, Albania, Macedonia, Algeria, Western Sahara, Burundi Mexico, and Honduras.

This has resulted in the construction of over 100,000 shelters and homes to refugees and displaced people around the world. We thank God and all of you our faithful supporters through the years for all that’s been able accomplish so far – there’s still so much to do. We value your continued support.

Thor Armstrong, Founder/CEO