As organizers prepare for a landmark women’s advocacy symposium later this month, pre-event community canvassing in the Mason’s Addition neighborhood has laid bare a cascade of unaddressed crises facing local women and girls, from systemic insecurity to targeted exploitation. Over a two-week outreach period, ministry teams visited more than 200 residential properties in the area, culminating in a public walkabout led by Urban Renewal Minister Lisa Rahming on Monday, according to senior ministry officials.
The door-to-door surveys have already yielded a clear picture of widespread unmet need: dozens of women have come forward to report experiences of domestic violence, struggle with chronic depression, and disclose acute food and housing instability. The outreach also confirmed longstanding local concerns about predatory grooming of school-aged girls by older men in the community. Centerville Urban Renewal Centre manager Joanne Baillou Ferguson confirmed that many respondents are urgently seeking safe emergency accommodation, support for their minor children, food aid, and private, confidential access to supportive social services.
“Women are now coming to us asking for a safe place,” Ferguson shared in an interview during the walkabout. “They need homes for their kids. They need food. We’re finding this out as we go door to door.” To reduce barriers to support, Ferguson emphasized that women do not need to file a formal police report to access help through the symposium, as a network of partner organizations and confidential resources will be available on site, with privacy centered as a core pillar of the initiative.
Minister Rahming explained that the five-day cross-community outreach across New Providence is designed to build awareness for the September 24 gathering, branded “Women Have A Voice Too.” The symposium was launched in direct response to rising alarm over violent crimes targeting women, and widespread anecdotal reports that many women feel their experiences and concerns are ignored by institutional systems. “We want them to know we’re listening,” Rahming said. “You have a voice, and we’re going to give you that forum to have that voice.”
The event will connect attending women directly with licensed professionals offering targeted support across high-need areas, including domestic violence intervention, mental health care for depression, general health services, and social welfare navigation. For women uncomfortable sharing their experiences in a public setting, private one-on-one consultations will be available, and complimentary transportation will be provided to eliminate travel barriers for those who need it. The symposium is being held in honor of Ann Marie Davis, wife of the Bahamian prime minister, whom Rahming praised as “a champion and an advocate for women in this country on every spectrum.”
During Monday’s walkabout, which kicked off at Father Marshall Cooper Park on Saxon Way, local residents shared on-the-ground accounts of the crises affecting their neighborhoods, echoing the concerns captured by the initial door-to-door outreach. Longtime resident Pauline Paula Rolle, 68, told organizers she has repeatedly observed older men luring vulnerable schoolgirls with small cash payments, taking advantage of children who suffer from food insecurity at home. “Young men, old men, giving these children dollar,” Rolle said. “I witness one or two and I almost brought my cane to show him!” She added that many girls accept the money despite feeling uncomfortable and frightened, because they are struggling with hunger. “So, it’s a lot of things happening to women and children today. They ain’t talking about it. Some of them come on my porch and sit down and say ‘Ms Rolle, I be so hungry.’” Rolle said she has personally confronted at least one older man she saw soliciting young schoolchildren as they walked through the neighborhood. “I witnessed an old man, almost 63, calling the little children going to school, but I told him you don’t have nothing to call them for.”
Rhonda Edgecombe, 49, another local resident, said she regularly discusses reports of violence against women with her 16-year-old daughter, and the rising crisis has left the teen deeply fearful for her own safety. “She’s a bit frightened,” Edgecombe said. “Because it could be anybody’s child, any mother, any sister.” Her concern is amplified by the common pattern of abuse in which perpetrators are people known to the victim, rather than random strangers. “I don’t want that, I don’t know that life, and I don’t want that for my child,” she added.
Seventy-year-old resident Mira Gardiner Humes echoed that sentiment, noting that many women endure abuse and hardship in secret, “catching hell” behind closed doors with no access to external support. Reverend Diana Francis, co-chair of the symposium initiative, issued a public call for all women across the country to attend the event and reach out for the help they need. “Women have a voice too,” Rev Francis said. “and we’re gathering because we want the voices of women to be heard. We created this space to help women navigate their struggles, difficulties and other challenges that too often go unaddressed.”