Bahamas News
Bahamas Feeding Network and Bahamas Rotary Clubs Donate $35,000 in Fight Against Hunger
#TheBahamas, December 7, 2021 – The Bahamas Feeding Network (BFN) and the Rotary Clubs of The Bahamas (RCOB) kickstarted the month of December with a wave of giving by distributing $35,000, in increments of $1,000 to $5,000, to 11 organizations during a presentation at Moseff House in Fox Hill.
“The money that we’re distributing today came from wholesalers and we would like to say a very special thank you to them for making today possible,” said Bahamas Feeding Network Executive Director, Philip Smith. Funds will be shared among churches and feeding centres to help feed those in their communities.
On World Food Day in October, BFN and RCOB raised and donated a total of $55,000 to launch the feeding initiative. In addition to the joint-partnership, four wholesalers including AML Foods, Jamaica Bahama Imports, Milo Butler Distributors and Bahamas International Foods donated a collective $35,000 for the second round of giving. Each donation is redeemable for purchase at any of the listed wholesalers.
Carla Stubbs expressed her excitement with those at the press conference.
“It is always our pleasure to partner with persons who are doing good in the world, said Rotary Assistant Governor, Carla Card-Stubbs. “I want to thank the partners and the vendors who have accommodated and facilitated this. When we conceived this program, we knew that there are different feeding programs, but we also knew that there were persons in society still being left out and that were falling through the cracks, so the choice of these organizations was deliberate.”
Recipients of the second round of donations included The Salvation Army, Bilney Lane Children’s Home, Elizabeth Estates Children’s Home, Bethel Baptist Church, Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Lighthouse Church of God, Bread Basket Ministries, Jehovah Jireh, Cornerstone Out Reach, Helping Others and First Baptist Church.
“The donation made today which was quote timely will assist the Children of the Bilney Lane Children’s Home,” said Bilney Lane Children’s Home Administrator Sharon Williams. “We are a small home and sometimes we feel that we are alone. So today, like no other day, we thank you for partnering with us and assisting us to meet the needs of the children. It will go a very long way. Like the scripture ‘To the least of us you have done unto me’, that sticks out when I see organizations like Rotary and BFN willing to help and support.”
Ray Nairn the Administrator Elizabeth Estates Children’s Home said how the donation would assist the 24 children between the ages of 11-18 who live in the home.
“It’s a great feeling to get a donation and we surely will make sure that it goes a long way keeping the kids satisfied and fed over the next few months or as long as it lasts,” said Nairn.
“As we give to the poor, we are literally giving to God and there is nothing more important than giving to God,” said Philip Smith. “One true way of getting peace is through giving.”
Press Release: Bahamas Feeding Network
Photo Caption: Bahamas Feeding Network and Rotary Clubs of The Bahamas donate $35,000 to 11 organizations. Front row, pictured l-r: Carla Card-Stubbs, Assistant Governor, Rotary Clubs of The Bahamas and Philip Smith, Executive Director, Bahamas Feeding Network. Back row, pictured l-r: Kevin Hall, The Breadbasket; Genevea Dean, First Baptist Church; Ray Nairn, Administrator, Elizabeth Estates Children’s Home; Pastor Sonia Rolla, Cornerstone Outreach Ministries; Eleanor Williams, First Baptist Church; Theodora Sargeant-Poitier, Jehovah Jireh Ministries International; Divisional Commander Roodolph Meo, The Salvation Army; Sharon Williams, Bilney Lane Children’s Home; Lisa Armbrister, The Salvation Army; Diana Andrews, Helping Others; Jacqueline Dorsett, Mt. Olive Baptist Church . Not pictured is Rev. Eileen Johnson, Lighthouse Fellowship Church of God. (Photo by Cay Focus Photography for DPA.)
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.
