Bahamas News
Samaritan’s Purse Continues Work in the Devastated Bahamas
October 20, 2019 – FROM DISTRIBUTING CRITICALLY NEEDED EMERGENCY ITEMS TO PROVIDING CLEAN WATER TO CARING FOR INJURED AND SICK PATIENTS, OUR TEAMS ARE SERVING IN JESUS’ NAME.
Roland counted 15 dead bodies floating in the water the day after Hurricane Dorian finally released the Abaco Islands from its deadly grip. The storm completely flattened every home in Roland’s neighbourhood.
“Nothing is here. I have no place to live. I have no job,” he said.
The restaurant where Roland worked is gone. The church where he leads Bible study and sometimes preaches is barely standing.
During the storm, Roland and his family took shelter at the church along with about 300 other people. But when the roof started ripping off and the water was almost waist high, they knew they were in trouble.
While the eye of the hurricane passed over, Roland and the group at the church fled to a nearby government building. If they had not relocated to a safer structure, Roland can’t bear to think of the likely outcome.
“God saved us. Only God saved us,” he said. “Some church members died because they didn’t evacuate. Some members, we don’t even know where they are.”
Samaritan’s Purse provided Roland and the church, which is a community distribution centre, with emergency relief items including hygiene kits, tarp, and solar lights. “Thank you for everything you do for us,” Roland said. “It’s a blessing.”
Ongoing Commitment
Samaritan’s Purse continues to serve families in the Bahamas more than one month after the Category 5 storm devastated the islands.
Our DC-8 cargo plane recently made its 18th trip to the Bahamas, having now delivered a total of 360 tonnes of critically needed emergency relief supplies. We are distributing heavy-duty shelter material (tarp), hygiene kits, kitchen kits, generators, blankets, jerry cans, and solar lights. We have also supplied more than 400,000 litres of clean water.
In addition to ongoing distributions from our base at Marsh Harbour in the Abacos, we are transporting emergency relief items by helicopter to numerous remote communities.
Recently, Samaritan’s Purse volunteers began working on Man-O-War Cay, one of the hardest-hit areas on the Abacos. Volunteers are covering roofs, clearing debris, and doing mud-outs at flooded homes.
Our Emergency Field Hospital also remains up and running in Freeport as our team of medical specialists provides quality treatment, including surgical care, for patients in desperate need. To date, we have seen more than 5,200 patients since the hospital opened on 10 Sept.
Clean Water for Hurricane Survivors
About one hour from Marsh Harbour is Coopers Town, where our team has set up a desalination unit for a community that had already been weeks without clean water for drinking, bathing, cooking, and washing clothes.
“We can’t do without the water. We need water for everything,” said Adella, who came to our water site several times to fill up jerry cans.
Adella rode out Hurricane Dorian at a friend’s house and they thought the terror would never cease. “The ceiling started to cave in, walls were coming apart, sheetrock was falling. The storm kept going and going and going,” she said.
On Grand Bahama Island, which lies 80-plus miles west of the Abacos, Ken Barr-Smith also hunkered down at home. As mayor of West End, the island’s capital, he didn’t want to leave behind elderly residents who weren’t able to evacuate. “I was so afraid,” Ken said. “We didn’t realise what the magnitude of the storm would be.”
Ken is grateful to Samaritan’s Purse for providing water and bringing hope to his hometown. “This is a really big help. We really appreciate it.”
Samaritan’s Purse set up our clean water tap stands on the grounds of a local medical clinic in West End. The tap stands not only serve residents, but also allowed the clinic to operate in the storm’s immediate aftermath.
“West End is a close community. I get to know patients personally,” said Dr. Alicia Genuino.
Dr. Alicia explained that many in West End were still trying to recover from Hurricane Matthew three years ago when Dorian knocked them down again. She said receiving water from Samaritan’s Purse is a huge encouragement to this struggling community.
Hospital Patients Trust God
After Freeport’s main hospital was damaged during the hurricane, we airlifted our Emergency Field Hospital at the request of the World Health Organisation and the Bahamas government.
A stroke brought Zek, a local pastor, to our hospital by ambulance as he was unable to speak or to walk. Our medical team ran tests, provided medication, and worked with Zek and his wife Judy to figure out the next steps for his recovery.
Judy explained that only the week before they had been fighting for their lives during Hurricane Dorian. The couple, along with family members and neighbours, tried to escape from their neighbourhood in the church bus.
“The water was so high the bus was starting to float, so we went to a shelter and spent the night on the second floor. It was a long, long night.”
When they returned home, Judy realised they were facing a long road of recovery. “No one was safe,” she said. “All the houses in our neighbourhood were damaged. My appliances were floating in the water.”
But they aren’t giving up. Judy is trusting God that Zek will recover and one day be able to preach again and to hold their newborn granddaughter.
Carla, another patient, also arrived not long after our hospital opened. Carla had stepped on a nail and her toe and foot were infected to the point that she not only needed antibiotics, but also several surgeries. “The nurses and doctors are amazing. They prayed with me and comforted me. They encourage you in the Lord,” Carla said.
Carla arrived at the hospital so dehydrated that our teams had to administer an IV before they could do surgery. She had been without food or water for about two days while she was trapped in her home during the hurricane.
Carla is grateful to God for saving her life and meeting her physical and spiritual needs at the Samaritan’s Purse hospital.
“Faith in Christ makes us strong,” she said. “You get through by the grace of God.”
To DONATE to Samaritan’s Purse: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/article/samaritans-purse-continues-work-in-the-devastated-bahamas/#donate
SOURCE: SAMARITAN’S PURSE
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.
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