A year after Bahamian Social Services Minister Myles Laroda alerted Parliament to an alarming surge in maternal-facilitated child prostitution, advocates report a complete absence of government-funded national measures to combat this deeply entrenched crisis. The Bahamas Urban Youth Development Centre (BUYDC) reveals that vulnerable minors continue to be commercially sexually exploited, primarily driven by severe economic deprivation that forces desperate mothers into unthinkable choices.
Prodesta Moore, BUYDC’s founder and president, characterizes this not as a sudden epidemic but as a decades-old systemic failure stemming from intergenerational poverty, housing insecurity, and profound trauma. While public awareness has increased since Minister Laroda’s 2025 disclosure that girls as young as 14 were being exploited to pay household bills, Moore confirms that concrete governmental response remains conspicuously absent.
Critical gaps persist across multiple fronts: emergency housing for at-risk youth, economic stabilization programs for struggling families, trauma-informed counseling, and rehabilitation services remain underdeveloped. Prevention education in high-risk communities and sustainable funding partnerships with frontline NGOs have similarly failed to materialize despite repeated advocacy efforts.
BUYDC, established in 2010 by Moore, has pioneered trauma-informed care, mentorship programs, housing referrals, and life-skills training specifically targeting youth coerced into transactional sex due to economic desperation. The organization emphasizes that the crisis transcends criminal justice matters, representing instead a catastrophic failure of social protection systems when families resort to exploitation for basic subsistence.
Minister Laroda, when contacted by The Tribune, maintained that the government continues working to mitigate the issue and eliminate instances of child exploitation, though he acknowledged the challenges of complete eradication. This stands in stark contrast to advocates’ assertions that the government has failed to implement targeted interventions despite its public acknowledgments.
Moore stresses that meaningful change requires immediate political commitment, coordinated leadership, and substantial financial investment—elements that have yet to materialize in any comprehensive national strategy. The organization remains prepared to collaborate on immediate solutions, emphasizing that the window for effective intervention is rapidly closing for countless vulnerable youth.