Bahamas News
BAHAMAS: Social Services stockpiles supplies for its role in Dorian relief effort
#Nassau, September 4, 2019 – Bahamas – Officials at the Department of Social Services, Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development, have been stockpiling emergency supplies since Friday (August 30) ahead of the massive relief effort expected to be undertaken in the Northern Bahamas in the wake of the monster Hurricane Dorian.
Minister of Social Services and Urban Development, the Hon. Frankie A. Campbell, who gave the mobilization order more than 96 hours ago, said statistics from the 2010 Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics, indicate that more than 73,000 persons and 20,000 homes could be impacted by Dorian which battered islands of the Northern Bahamas as a Category 5 Hurricane – primarily Grand Bahama and Abaco.
Minister Campbell said Social Work staff across The Bahamas have been placed on full alert in order to facilitate the role of management of the relief effort in the Northern Bahamas, once the initial assessments have been completed and the ‘all clear’ has been given for Emergency Responders to safely operate in the impacted areas.
“This is a massive and unprecedented relief and recovery effort solely because Dorian turned out to be a mammoth and unprecedented Hurricane,” Minister Campbell said. “But despite its status, the reality is that we are going to have to hit the ground running, working in conjunction with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and our other partners to ensure that our response is immediate, efficient and effective.
“Emergency packages have already been put together by staff of the Department of Social Services for the affected islands and include food items, canned goods, non-perishable items, water, hygiene supplies – things that we know our people will need in those first few hours, first few days.
“We are just waiting for the all clear. We are just awaiting to be assured the aircraft that will be used to channel immediate relief to our people can land; the vessels that will be used to ship immediate relief to our people can dock in the affected islands, and these items will be on their way,” Minister Campbell added.
Minister Campbell said based on the sample size of images on the potential extent of the damage caused by Dorian: “it is almost certain that there will be a significant housing need.” He said government planners will make determinations as to whether temporary shelters can be housed on the impacted islands, or transported elsewhere for shelter.
“For those who have no family or friends to take them in, we are going to have to extend shelter in the short term and then move into our mid-to-long term plan.”
Minister Campbell said the Ministry and its various Departments and Divisions, are “absolute” in giving its best duty with regards to the role they will be required to play as part of the overarching response to Hurricane Dorian
“As I always indicate, we are a part of the before, during and after team. We would have started our preparations before the Hurricane Season approached, identifying shelters, putting teams in place and working along with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) as an Emergency Support Function (ESF). All of the respective islands affected by the Hurricane had their shelters and shelter teams in place.
“The second phase of our role would be the ‘during’ which would cover shelter management; although some of the buildings were compromised as a result of the unprecedented magnitude of the Hurricane, we were able to successfully transfer them [persons] to other secure spaces. Persons who made their way to our shelters, we can account for them and they were cared for.
“But while we still have people in shelters, you would see that we are also preparing for the next phase — which is the aftermath,” Minister Campbell said.
By Matt Maura
Release: BIS
Photo Captions:
Header: Minister of Social Services and Urban Development, the Hon. Frankie A. Campbell, receives a progress report on the stockpiling of relief supplies from senior staff of the Department of Social Services Monday afternoon. Pictured (from left) are: Assistant Directors, Department of Social Services, Mr. Wrensworth Butler and Mrs. Chereley Kelly. Also pictured is Mrs. Lillian Quant-Forbes, Director, the Department of Social Services whose back is to the camera.
Insert: First Responders from the Royal Bahamas Police Force arriving at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium with two shelter seekers Monday afternoon. Shelter Management Team Members from the Department of Social Services were on hand to receive the two ladies. (BIS Photo/Matt Maura)
(BIS Photo/Matt Maura)
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
