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Against a backdrop of overstretched public and non-profit social services across Barbados, a newly registered Christian faith-based charity has officially launched with an ambitious mission to reach vulnerable populations that have fallen through the cracks of existing support systems. Founded by Dr. Belfield Belgrave, the Compassionate Hands Foundation aims to address unmet needs ranging from shelter for survivors of domestic abuse to care for neglected elderly populations, and even community-level intervention to curb rising gang violence.

At its recent launch event held in Strathclyde, St. Michael, foundation leadership laid out a dual mission that combines spiritual encouragement with hands-on, practical support for marginalized groups. Dr. Belgrave, who founded the organization after experiencing a personal calling to serve what he calls the “least of these” in Barbadian society, emphasized that the foundation’s core purpose is to build a critical safety net for people overlooked by mainstream institutions.

One of the organization’s flagship initiatives is the development of a purpose-built safe home for abused women and their children, a project that fills a growing gap in domestic violence support services as existing providers struggle to meet rising demand. “Right now, our top priority is securing a suitable building and recruiting qualified staff to get this shelter up and running,” Dr. Belgrave told local outlet Barbados TODAY. “Our vision is to create a space where survivors, especially children who often bear the brunt of domestic abuse, can receive consistent care and live free from the threat of harm.”

Beyond domestic violence support, the foundation has also made care for Barbados’ aging population a key focus. Dr. Belgrave noted that many elderly Barbadians, who dedicated their working lives to building the nation, are increasingly abandoned or neglected once they reach retirement age. Compassionate Hands aims to step in to provide consistent support and connection to keep elderly residents thriving across the island.

Dr. Jonlyn Harewood, a foundation director and trained economist and urban planner, clarified that the organization has no interest in public recognition or financial gain, instead prioritizing quiet “invisible work” that centers people who feel unseen by broader society. Since completing its official registration, the foundation has worked diligently to meet all national legal and regulatory requirements, and is now fully prepared to roll out its core programs.

These initiatives extend far beyond shelter and elder care: the charity plans to partner with local churches to provide urgent mental health counseling for at-risk groups, support people living with disabilities through small targeted infrastructure projects such as installing accessible bathroom fixtures for those who have recently acquired disabilities, assist students who have fallen out of the formal education system, provide support to widows, and run youth engagement programs in high-need communities.

“We exist specifically to fill the gaps and cracks that other organizations can’t cover,” Dr. Harewood explained. “So many government and non-profit agencies are overwhelmed by rising demand that they simply can’t meet every need. Our goal is to help the people who fall through those gaps, without seeking any public reward or recognition.”

In response to the recent surge in gun violence across Barbados, Dr. Belgrave has proposed a bold, direct approach: open, face-to-face engagement with gang leaders to broker community peace agreements, modeled after international diplomatic negotiation. “We plan to go directly to gang leaders to sit down and talk, to see if we can broker ceasefires and lasting peace between rival groups,” Dr. Belgrave said. “So many of our young people are adrift; gangs give them a sense of belonging and love that they aren’t getting anywhere else. We want to go into these violence-affected hotspots and make a meaningful, long-term difference in their lives.”

Despite the organization’s ambitious agenda, Dr. Harewood stressed that all programming will be rooted in data-driven decision making rather than impulsive action. Unlike many new initiatives that launch without first assessing community needs, the Compassionate Hands Foundation plans to conduct systematic needs assessments to identify where demand is greatest. “If you take the time to listen to communities, you can clearly see the unmet needs that are bubbling under the surface,” she said, noting that this research-first approach will allow the charity to deliver the most effective support possible to the people who need it most.

After a devastating 2024 production shortfall that sent retail sweet potato prices skyrocketing to three to four times their normal level, Barbados’ major sweet potato producers have staged a remarkable yield recovery, with farmers crediting targeted planting and crop treatment innovations for the dramatic turnaround. The rebound comes after a coordinated industry response spearheaded by local agricultural stakeholders, who gathered this week for an open day highlighting the successful new practices that pulled the sector back from crisis. The event, hosted by Barbados’ Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), combined an educational workshop seminar with an on-site field tour of research plots at St George’s Valley Island Farm, where the new growing techniques were first tested. Ron Hope, farm manager at Valley Island Farm, laid out the full scope of the 2024 crisis, which originated from a widespread complex of viral diseases that crippled output across the island’s largest commercial growing operations, including Edgecumbe Plantation and Armag Farms. For Hope’s own operation, the impact was catastrophic: established fields that typically produced tens of thousands of pounds of sweet potatoes saw total output collapse under the pressure of untreated infection. Facing the prospect of ongoing industry collapse, farmers began testing targeted adjustments to traditional planting and crop management protocols, starting with pre-planting treatment of sweet potato slips (the root cuttings used to establish new crops) and a shift away from heavy chemical fertilization toward organic nutrient management. “I dipped my planting material in a light organic soil mixture to boost rooting strength and improve tuber development,” Hope explained of his modified process. The results were immediate and visible: farmers reported a sharp drop in the number of plants showing clear symptoms of viral infection. “I saw a major reduction in the number of virus-looking plants in my fields,” Hope said. Alongside slip treatment, Hope also adjusted his fertilization strategy, doubling down on organic inputs even as he already avoided heavy chemical use. “I started to fertilise differently. I don’t use a lot of chemical fertilisers either way but I used more organic fertiliser basically,” he noted. These small but impactful changes translated directly into an extraordinary rebound in total production. “Production increased a lot last year, big time, big time, big time,” Hope emphasized. Multiple growing fields on his property delivered robust yields: two roughly four-acre plots combined to produce 120,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, equal to around 25,000 pounds per acre – a level Hope described as exceptional productivity for the region. Looking ahead to 2025 full-season output, Hope noted that while consistent yield improvements remain the long-term goal, further gains will depend on sustained investment into infrastructure and clean planting material. He added that a target of 20,000 pounds per acre would represent a sustainable, profitable output that balances production volume with operational scalability. So far in 2025, early harvest results have exceeded even optimistic expectations: in some sections of his fields, Hope is harvesting up to 1,500 pounds of sweet potatoes per planting row, with growth so strong that harvesting teams have not yet finished digging all mature tubers in some areas. The successful model developed at Valley Island Farm has already been adopted across the wider Barbados sweet potato farming community, with other major producers replicating the slip treatment and crop management strategies and sourcing access to improved, tested planting material. “Guys came, got different planting material. Edgecumbe [plantation in St Philip] had a big, big problem up there. He got it sorted out,” Hope said, framing the recovery as a collective achievement by local farming communities. During the open day’s workshop, Michael James, Barbados’ chief agricultural officer, confirmed that while the sector is no longer in full-blown crisis, it continues to face ongoing pressure from viral pathogens and insect pests, with long-term stabilization dependent on consistent adoption of improved management practices. “I wouldn’t say we are in a crisis,” James stated, “but pest and disease management remains central to stabilising production.” James explained that the primary pathways for viral spread are infected planting material and insect vectors, making access to disease-free planting stock the single most critical step for controlling outbreaks. “If most of the viruses spread through planting material as well as by vectors, how do you control this? By using clean planting material. And that’s where the tissue culture facility would assist,” he said. Beyond improved management of existing stock, the Ministry of Agriculture is working to strengthen the local sweet potato crop base by introducing new, resilient cultivars developed through international research. “We are also looking to bring in some new varieties out of the International Potato Centre, which will help augment what we currently have as well as to look at how we can improve the ability of some of these cultivars to withstand or tolerate some of the viruses that we have now,” James explained. The scale of yield loss across the island still varies widely from farm to farm, James noted, with outcomes directly tied to each operation’s management practices and the quality of the planting material they use. “You’re not going to get 100 per cent, but… it can be reduced 10, 15, 20 per cent, all depending on the type of material you have that you’re planting, as well as the type of pests that you’re dealing with,” he said. The ongoing expansion of Barbados’ local tissue culture laboratory will play a central long-term role in supplying farmers with consistent access to clean planting stock, though James cautioned that initial production volumes will be limited, and farmers will be expected to multiply the clean stock on their own operations to meet growing demand. In the near term, James urged all local sweet potato producers to adhere strictly to established best management practices to prevent future outbreaks. “If you’re going to grow it, seek some advice from the ministry, CARDI or IICA. Check with the persons who you’re getting planting material from to make sure that the planting material is clean,” he advised. He also stressed the often-overlooked importance of on-field and post-harvest sanitation protocols in limiting pathogen spread: “Make sure that you use proper sanitation practices both in your field as well as post-harvest because that helps with reducing most of the diseases as well as the pests that can harm your crop.”

With just a few weeks remaining before Barbados’ annual Common Entrance Examination, education leaders at two top Christ Church primary schools are sounding the alarm about pervasive gaps in students’ composition and reading comprehension skills — gaps that they warn could drag down the performance of even well-prepared test-takers, according to findings from a recent region-wide mock assessment.

Tyrone Marshall, principal of Water Street’s Milton Lynch Primary School, acknowledged that while the vast majority of students have dedicated significant time and effort to exam preparation, external socioeconomic factors often create unaddressed barriers to academic success. Many working parents in the community are forced to take on two or even three jobs to make ends meet, leaving them unable to provide consistent after-school support for their children’s studying. Even so, Marshall expressed cautious confidence in his students, noting that most have followed their teachers’ guidance closely and are on track to deliver solid results on exam day.

Fonda Boyce Small, principal of nearby Christ Church Girls’ School — also located on Water Street — echoed Marshall’s concerns, confirming that the mock exam’s results aligned with longstanding observations from classroom instructors. Educators at her school have spent months prioritizing extra practice for composition and comprehension, two areas that have consistently challenged student cohorts for years. Comprehension Section B, in particular, remains a persistent stumbling block for many test-takers. Small expressed hope that students would internalize the feedback from the mock assessment and apply their full effort when they sit for the official exam.

The cross-school mock assessment was organized and led by Quincy Jones, founder and director of the local Trident Charity, who administered the practice test to students across 12 institutions in the St Michael and Christ Church zones. During a visit to Water Street schools on Monday to distribute customized “11-Plus Kits” for upcoming test-takers, Jones — who is also the Democratic Labour Party candidate for the constituency in the upcoming February 11 general election — flagged a growing modern threat to formal writing performance: the informal, text-based language that students increasingly use on platforms like WhatsApp.

Jones pointed to the mock exam results that confirmed composition as the lowest-performing section across participating schools, highlighting common informal errors that students continue to make. Examples include grammatically incorrect phrasing such as “me and John” instead of the standard “John and I,” and casual text slang like abbreviating “you” to “U” and “because” to “BC” in formal essays. In the lead-up to the official exam, Jones encouraged students to focus on incorporating descriptive adjectives into their writing and mastering core technical rules like subject-verb agreement to avoid unnecessary point deductions.

Beyond test performance, Jones reminded the Class 4 students sitting for the exam that dedication and personal leadership matter more than the specific secondary school they gain admission to, emphasizing that every public secondary institution in Barbados has produced successful national leaders. As the countdown to the official exam continues, both school principals and the charity organizer have stressed that the immediate priority is building student confidence and helping learners correct the technical writing errors identified during the mock assessment.