Bahamas News
Wife of The Bahamas Prime Minister Supports Sewing Classes in Over-the-Hill Community
#NASSAU, The Bahamas – July 15, 2020 – Wife of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Patricia Minnis has thrown her support behind the launch of a sewing programme under the Over-the-Hill Community Development Partnership Initiative, aimed at economic empowerment of residents.
The programme, which provides free sewing classes, was launched on Monday, July 13, 2020 at the Urban Renewal Centerville centre, Deveaux Street. Also present were Minister of Social Services and Urban Development, the Hon. Frankie Campbell; Samita Ferguson, Executive Manager, Over-the-Hill Unit, Office of the Prime Minister; and Kemie Jones, Project Manager, Over-the Hill Unit, Office of the Prime Minister.
Mrs. Minnis, in her official function, Office of the Spouse of the Prime Minister, underscored the importance of the programme and other such initiatives.
She announced that July 20-24, 2020 her office will hold food processing classes for women and girls to empower them to make a living.
Mrs. Minnis also envisioned plans to duplicate these initiatives throughout the Family Islands.
“So we are swapping, switching and looking at various things that happen in this, Over-the-Hill community to carry to other communities especially in the Family Islands. They would love to see the sewing machines as well as the food processing classes going to all our Family Islands,” she said.
The Over-the-Hill Community Development Partnership Initiative donated the 10 sewing machines to two Urban Renewal Centres – Centreville and Bain & Grants Town — as part of the launch of a suite of technical and vocational programmes in the inner city. These programmes are designed to attract residents who are unemployed or with low incomes to entrepreneurship and apprenticeship. Residents are encouraged to contact Urban Renewal Centres to apply.
Another objective of the sewing programme is to provide male/female residents with opportunities to explore other entrepreneurial paths to earn a primary or second stream of income and thus reduce poverty inequality levels and potentially reduce crime.
The key stakeholders are the Over-the-Hill Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, Urban Renewal, Department of Inland Revenue and the Small Business Development Centre.
The sewing programme is part of components of the Over-The-Hill Community Development Partnership Initiative launched by the Prime Minister in May 2018.
The Initiative is built around six key pillars designed to fully restore the Over-the-Hill community communities. The pillars are:
• Social Empowerment
• Economic Empowerment
• Rejuvenation
• Smart Technology
• Green and Sustainable Technology
• Programmes for the Youth and the Elderly
BIS Press Release by Lindsay Thompson
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas. 
The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.
In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”
The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.
No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.
John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.
“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it
doesn’t feel good but we need it.”
He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.
“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”
He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.
Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.
Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.
“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.
The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is
approved at the Cabinet level.
The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.
It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.
The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.
Cabinet did not state when the office will open.
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