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Atkinson Primary school strengthened through OECS Climate Resilience Project

Against a backdrop of rising climate uncertainty and more frequent extreme weather events, two Eastern Caribbean countries have wrapped up a landmark initiative designed to boost disaster preparedness at schools serving climate-vulnerable indigenous communities. Led by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission and funded by the New Zealand High Commission Fund for the Caribbean, the 12-month project has delivered tangible infrastructure upgrades, life-saving emergency equipment, and targeted hands-on training to two participating institutions: Atkinson Primary School in Dominica’s Kalinago Territory and Sandy Bay Government School in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Implemented through the OECS Commission’s Education Development Management Unit (EDMU), the initiative ran from July 1, 2025, through July 20, 2026. Beyond serving core educational functions, both schools act as critical community gathering spaces and official emergency shelters during hurricanes and floods, making their resilience a top priority for regional safety planning.

At Dominica’s Atkinson Primary School, the project addressed long-standing climate-related hazards that disrupted learning and threatened safety. A custom 100-foot drainage system was installed to eliminate chronic flooding that regularly submerged the schoolyard during heavy rain events. Additionally, reinforced custom wooden doors were constructed and fitted to withstand the powerful hurricane-force winds that regularly impact the Eastern Caribbean. Both participating schools received standardized emergency response packages, including portable gasoline generators, solar-powered lighting systems, and public address equipment. These tools are designed to keep the schools operational during widespread power and communication outages, allowing them to continue hosting displaced community members even when critical infrastructure fails across surrounding areas.

Organizers prioritized capacity building as much as physical upgrades, recognizing that lasting resilience depends on trained local stakeholders. Two-day interactive workshops, led by local disaster management experts Joian Coipel in Dominica and Dr. Idelia Ferdinand in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, adapted regional disaster risk reduction guidelines into actionable, site-specific emergency procedures. Participants also ran full simulation exercises to test existing school disaster response plans, identifying gaps and refining protocols for real-world events.

In total, 36 key stakeholders including school administrators, teachers, support staff, and local indigenous community leaders completed the training. Post-project assessments measured a 15.5% average increase in disaster risk management knowledge among participants, with 90% of trainees reporting significantly higher confidence in their ability to coordinate a safe emergency response at their school.

Muriel John, Principal of Atkinson Primary School, welcomed the transformative impact of the project, noting that it addressed decades of unmet safety needs while uniting staff and community members around a shared goal of preparedness. “The training reminded us that resilience is something we build together as a community long before disaster strikes,” John said. “Where we once felt vulnerable, we are now better equipped; where once we could only react, we now know how to prepare.” She extended formal gratitude to all participating partners, adding: “You have not only built a more resilient school, but also strengthened the spirit of a people who have always known how to endure and now feel supported in that endurance. We are grateful, stronger and ready.”

Dr. Didacus Jules, Director General of the OECS Commission, framed the initiative as a core part of the regional body’s ongoing commitment to building climate resilience across vulnerable small island developing states. “By empowering our indigenous school communities in Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with both fortified infrastructure and critical local expertise, we are not just protecting our students; we are establishing a vital blueprint for regional safety,” Jules explained.

Linda Te Puni, New Zealand High Commissioner to the Caribbean, emphasized that the project’s centering of indigenous knowledge and community leadership aligned closely with New Zealand’s core development values. “It is especially important that this initiative places indigenous knowledge, community ownership, and inclusive development at its centre. These values are important to New Zealand,” she said.

Building on the successful outcomes of this pilot project, the OECS Commission plans to expand the model to similar resilience-building initiatives in Grenada and Saint Lucia in coming years. Project outcomes are also integrated into the regional Climate Smart Education Systems Initiative, which aims to embed climate resilience into education policy and infrastructure planning across the Eastern Caribbean to deliver long-term, widespread benefits for vulnerable communities.

13 8 月, 2026
He wanted to be an engineer. Teaching became his life’s work

Three decades ago, George Cox never mapped out a career in education. As a young boy growing up, his sights were firmly set on engineering, drawn by his lifelong love of designing and building new things. That early curiosity, which would one day steer him toward a career in art education, first emerged when he began taking apart his father’s belongings — including an old family television — to understand how they worked. When his father ordered him to have the set working upon his return from a trip, Cox managed to get it running despite having extra parts and screws left over, a small early win that hinted at his knack for problem-solving.

After finishing secondary school, Cox enrolled at Barbados Community College, where he opted to study subjects he felt naturally drawn to: English, history, and art. Before long, art became his primary focus, and his first teaching role soon followed: a part-time position at St Leonard’s School, which he remembers fondly for its tight-knit staff and welcoming environment. As a young educator entering the field without an official mentor, Cox drew on the lessons he learned from his own past teachers, particularly a man named Mr. Jones, who left an indelible mark on his approach to teaching. Cox blended the strongest qualities of the teachers who shaped him to build his own unique educational philosophy, one rooted in the idea that every student learns differently.

For Cox, teaching is far from a one-size-fits-all lecture. It is an inherently personal practice, shaped by the unique personalities and needs of each learner in the classroom — a belief that also extends to his perspective on art education. He is a vocal advocate for expanding art’s role in early K-12 education, arguing that the subject fosters independent thinking in a way that rote memorization-heavy curricula cannot. Unlike core subjects that often focus on recalling pre-determined information, art asks students to form their own ideas, visualize three-dimensional space, and explore their understanding of the world around them, alongside other creative subjects like English, theater, and music.

After 30 years in the classroom, Cox has witnessed profound shifts in how students engage with learning, and few changes have been as impactful as the rise of digital technology and social media. While he acknowledges that access to computers and digital tools offers clear benefits for students, he warns that attention-driven platforms like TikTok and Instagram have created new obstacles for independent thought. Most students can navigate these platforms for casual use, he notes, but few have learned to leverage them for practical purposes, like generating income or researching relevant information. Instead, most gravitate toward low-effort, superficial content: gossip, provocative imagery, and self-portrait content. Over time, Cox says, constant exposure to this curated, algorithm-driven content has left many of his students struggling to develop and articulate their own original ideas.

Even after decades of shaping young minds, Cox says he continues to learn and grow alongside his students. For new and veteran teachers alike, his core advice is simple: practice patience. Teaching, he emphasizes, is a lifelong calling, not just a job. For anyone considering entering the profession, he offers a playful yet revealing warning: “Don’t do it.” The joke comes with a caveat, though — once you enter education, it is nearly impossible to leave. The work is deeply personal, he explains, and even addictive: getting to interact with hundreds of distinct young personalities and watch them grow is a one-of-a-kind privilege.

For Cox, the most rewarding part of a career in education is watching former students go on to build their own lives and careers. He still recalls one former student who now has a family of his own, and the profound impact Cox had on his trajectory. Moments like that, when he sees the long-term ripple effect of his work, make the long days and occasional frustrations of teaching entirely worthwhile. When asked to sum up his teaching philosophy in just a few words, Cox lists four core values: patience, genuineness, communication, and forgiveness. Forgiveness, he explains, applies both to students who make mistakes and to teachers themselves — acknowledging that no educator is perfect, and everyone has room to grow.

Though he never ended up designing and building the physical structures he dreamed of as an aspiring engineer, Cox has spent 30 years building something far more enduring: the confidence in young people to think independently, create freely, and find their own path in the world.

13 8 月, 2026
‘What does CARICOM mean to YOUth?’: Young Caribbean voices answer

Marking International Youth Day, young people across the Caribbean have traded formal policy briefs and scripted speeches for personal prose, heartfelt poetry and original song lyrics to share what the regional Caribbean Community (CARICOM) movement means to them. The result of this grassroots creative call is *What CARICOM Means to YOUth*, a one-of-a-kind regional youth anthology curated under the umbrella of the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors Programme. The collection made its official public debut on Wednesday, August 12, hosted by the Hunter J. François Library at Saint Lucia’s Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC).

The launch event drew a cross-section of stakeholders, including senior government officials, local CARICOM Youth Ambassadors, SALCC students, and partner organization representatives, all gathered to celebrate a project centered on one deceptively simple yet deeply meaningful question: What does CARICOM mean to you?

Naeem Philbert, Deputy CARICOM Youth Ambassador for Saint Lucia, explained that the choice to center creative expression over formal commentary was no accident. The intentional shift in format was designed to open space for young people across the 15-nation bloc to speak in their own voices, and to explore their relationship with the regional community in ways that feel authentic and natural to their generation.

“Instead of asking for formal position papers, we invited young people across the entire Caribbean community to respond to the idea of CARICOM through personal stories, original poetry, song lyrics and spoken word,” Philbert shared at the launch. “We deliberately chose this creative path because we know there are thoughts and feelings young people can convey through a poem that would never find their way onto a bureaucratic policy document. Personal experiences can be captured far more powerfully in a story than in a rigid formal statement, and young people’s biggest aspirations can only reach their fullest expression through music and art.”

This perspective was echoed by Rohan Lubon, Deputy Permanent Secretary in Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, who emphasized that the anthology is far more than just a new literary publication. Lubon framed the collection as a critical bridge between young Caribbean people and regional decision-makers.

“This anthology opens a window directly into the minds, dreams, hopes, concerns and highest aspirations of our young people,” Lubon said. “We are intentionally creating space for their voices to be heard, and we are acknowledging that when young people are given the opportunity to express themselves openly, they have so much to say — and so much to contribute to the future of our Caribbean.”

Across the anthology’s pages, contributing young writers explore a range of core themes tied to regional life: shared Caribbean identity, the richness of regional cultural diversity, the value of cross-island unity, access to opportunity across the bloc, and their collective hopes for the future of CARICOM. Beyond its literary value, the collection offers policymakers and older generations a rare unfiltered glimpse into how the Caribbean’s younger generation understands CARICOM and its tangible impact on their daily lives.

For Shelley Desir, Saint Lucia’s lead CARICOM Youth Ambassador, publishing this first collection is not the end of the project — it is just the beginning of an ongoing conversation. Desir urged attendees and readers across the region to keep the dialogue alive long after the launch event.

“Don’t let these stories end when you close the book,” Desir said. “Read the collection, talk about the stories with your friends and family, share them across your communities, recommend them to others. And when you get the chance to meet one of our young contributing authors, don’t just congratulate them — ask them ‘what are you writing next?’ Because we want more: more stories, more books, and hopefully many more launches like this across the region in the years to come.”

13 8 月, 2026
97 Youths Complete UNFPA Leadership Camp Aimed at Reducing Adolescent Pregnancy

A transformative youth leadership development initiative has wrapped up in Belize, bringing together 97 young people from three of the country’s districts to equip them with the skills to drive community change around adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Hosted as part of a regional project focused on cutting adolescent pregnancy rates, the four-day “Let’s Be Leaders!” Youth Training Camp was a collaborative effort between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Belize’s Department of Youth Services, with sponsorship from local firm RF&G.

Participants hailing from Belize, Stann Creek, and Toledo districts took part in the residential program, which was split across three separate weekends to accommodate young people from different regions of the country. Unlike traditional lecture-based training, the camp centered on interactive, hands-on learning that combined formal leadership skill-building, critical discussions on youth health, and cultural exchange activities to create an inclusive, supportive environment for growth.

The initiative is embedded within the broader “Let’s Be Clear” public education campaign, which forms a core component of the “Leave No One Behind: Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy” project. This multi-year effort receives financial backing from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Government of Ireland through its development assistance program, Irish Aid, which has long prioritized youth sexual and reproductive health outcomes in the Caribbean.

Over the course of the program, young attendees worked through modules designed to boost their self-confidence, build peer networks across district boundaries, and strengthen their ability to make informed, intentional decisions about their own lives. A central focus of the training aligned directly with the “Let’s Be Clear” campaign’s core mission: expanding access to evidence-based, age-appropriate information about sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and healthy relationship dynamics. By building young people’s leadership capacity, organizers hope to empower participants to become advocates for their own wellbeing and the health of their peers across their home communities, creating sustainable, youth-led change that addresses the root drivers of unintended adolescent pregnancy in Belize.

13 8 月, 2026
Alleged spy links shadow Cuban diplomats’ exit from DR

In a decisive diplomatic move that underscores regional tensions between democratic governance and authoritarian rule, the Dominican government has ordered the withdrawal of nine Cuban diplomatic mission members, citing illegal undercover intelligence activities carried out under the protection of official diplomatic status.

Senior official sources with direct access to the investigation told local outlet El Día that Dominican security agencies have gathered concrete evidence confirming that several of the accused diplomats were operating on behalf of Cuba’s national intelligence and security agencies. Dominican authorities have ruled these activities completely inconsistent with accepted international norms for diplomatic work, arguing that the covert operations violate the country’s national sovereignty.

Public opinion in the Dominican Republic has long stood firm against unauthorized foreign intelligence operations on domestic soil, particularly those linked to the Cuban communist system, amplifying the government’s rationale for the expulsion order. Following the completion of the investigation, the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a formal demand requiring all nine implicated diplomats and their immediate family members to leave Dominican territory within a seven-day window.

In an official statement, government spokespersons explicitly rejected widespread speculation that the expulsion was linked to the recent defection of four Cuban athletes, who chose to remain in the Dominican Republic after competing at the 2026 XXV Central American and Caribbean Games held in Santo Domingo. While the Foreign Ministry confirmed that the withdrawal request was processed in full compliance with standard international diplomatic protocol, official representatives declined to publicly share detailed information about the specific intelligence activities that prompted the order. Senior sources, however, have confirmed the covert operations were the core trigger for the government’s action.

This diplomatic incident comes at a time of deepening crisis within Cuba itself. For more than six decades, the Cuban people have lived under a communist authoritarian regime defined by consistent political repression, a collapsing national economy, and widespread shortages of essential food, medicine, and other basic goods.

Regional analysts note that the Dominican Republic’s decision aligns with a growing consensus across Latin America and among Latino communities in the United States, which has increasingly drawn a clear distinction between open democratic governance and the authoritarian system maintained by the Cuban government in Havana. By acting to shut down unauthorized intelligence activity on its territory, Santo Domingo has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to protecting both national security and the integrity of its democratic institutions.

13 8 月, 2026
Executive decree appoints Dinorah García Romero to lead ISFODOSU

SANTO DOMINGO – In an official administrative move signed into effect via Presidential Decree 517-26, Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has named seasoned education leader Dinorah García Romero as the new rector of the Salomé Ureña Higher Institute of Teacher Training (ISFODOSU), the country’s preeminent public institution for preparing K-12 educators. The appointment went into immediate effect following the decree’s issuance on July 30, 2026.

As part of the executive order, Abinader formally revoked the prior appointment of Nurys María del Carmen González Durán, who had served as ISFODOSU’s rector since taking office in March 2021. The leadership transition follows a structured, formal candidate selection process overseen independently by ISFODOSU’s Board of Directors. Per the presidential decree, the board vetted applicants and finalized a shortlist of qualified candidates through its official Resolution JD-03-2026-01. The board’s nominee proposal was then submitted to the Executive Branch on July 14, 2026, by Luis Miguel De Camps García, who serves dual roles as Dominican Minister of Education and president of the ISFODOSU Board of Directors.

The decree anchors the leadership change in the Dominican government’s core legal mandate: upholding the state’s obligation to guarantee all citizens access to a high-quality public education system. The official document outlines the institution’s core mission as advancing “the comprehensive development of citizens with critical thinking, creative capacity, and a commitment to democratic principles, equity, social justice, and the sustainable development of the Nation.” It further emphasizes that all public administration appointments must meet strict standards of full transparency, legal accountability, and alignment with the broader public interest.

García Romero brings to the role more than three decades of hands-on experience across pedagogy, academic research, and higher education leadership in the Dominican Republic. She built her academic foundation at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU), where she earned her undergraduate degree in Education. She went on to complete a master’s degree in Higher Education Center Management through a joint program between the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and the University of Barcelona, followed by a second master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC). She also completed doctoral-level studies in Education at the University of Murcia in Spain.

Prior to her appointment at ISFODOSU, García Romero held a series of prominent leadership roles across Dominican education, including a nine-year tenure leading the Higher Institute for Specialized Studies (ISESP) from 2016 to 2025, a period marked by significant institutional growth and consolidation for that center. She has also previously served as director of the Poveda Center and as a sitting member of the Dominican National Council of Education. Her decades of specialized work in teacher training and national curriculum development leave her uniquely positioned to lead the country’s leading university focused exclusively on training the next generation of Dominican educators.

13 8 月, 2026
Tax reform, tourism records, and a new resort: What’s behind the North Coast’s Real Estate growth

For decades, mainstream analysis of the Dominican Republic’s North Coast real estate sector has relied heavily on listed asking prices and developer marketing projections, rather than hard data from completed property transactions. Today, three interconnected shifts are reshaping the market simultaneously: a newly enacted cut to capital gains taxes, a record-breaking tourism boom, and a massive new luxury resort development under construction. Local brokerage transaction data now offers an early, on-the-ground look at how these changes are moving the needle for buyer activity.

13 8 月, 2026
Gasoline and Regular Diesel prices increase for August 15–21

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM) made a key announcement on Friday afternoon outlining a weekly fuel price adjustment that will take effect from August 15 through August 21. Under the new pricing scheme, two widely consumed fuel grades, regular gasoline and regular diesel, will see a modest increase of RD$3 per gallon, while prices for premium gasoline, premium diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and natural gas will hold steady at their current levels.

Following the price hike, regular gasoline will be retailed at RD$307.50 per gallon across the country, and regular diesel will be priced at RD$259.80 per gallon. In an official press statement released alongside the announcement, MICM emphasized that even with this week’s adjustment, current fuel prices remain lower than the levels recorded before the government implemented its price stabilization policy. Back on June 13, the Dominican government rolled out a 90-day fuel price freeze as a core component of its national Anti-Crisis Plan, a policy designed to cushion the impact of global energy market volatility on household and business budgets.

The targeted adjustment, which only affects lower-grade regular fuels while leaving premium products and residential energy sources like LPG and natural gas unchanged, reflects the government’s effort to balance shifting global energy costs with its commitment to long-term price stability through the Anti-Crisis Plan framework.

13 8 月, 2026
Government supports INTEC and AI Robotix Alzheimer’s research project

In a major push for advanced neurodegenerative disease research in the Caribbean, the government of the Dominican Republic has announced its formal backing for an ambitious Alzheimer’s research project led by two domestic institutions: the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC) and AI technology firm AI Robotix. Merging expertise across four cutting-edge fields—artificial intelligence, neuroscience, molecular biology, and data science—the initiative aims to unlock groundbreaking new strategies for the early detection, prevention, and therapeutic intervention of Alzheimer’s, a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects millions of people globally.

The collaborative project was officially presented to top Dominican government leaders last week during a closed-door meeting held at the National Palace in Santo Domingo. Attendees included President Luis Abinader, Vice President Raquel Peña, and José Ignacio Paliza, Minister of the Presidency. Leading the presentation were Arturo El Villar, rector of INTEC, and Juan Carlos Guilbe, chief executive officer of AI Robotix, who outlined the project’s core objectives and long-term impact potential for both the Dominican Republic and global Alzheimer’s research.

At the core of the project is the application of sophisticated artificial intelligence models, which are designed to process and analyze massive datasets of existing scientific and biomedical research findings. Unlike traditional research methods that require researchers to manually sort through thousands of studies, the AI system can identify subtle, previously unrecognized patterns across disparate datasets and generate evidence-based new hypotheses. These generated hypotheses will then serve as guiding frameworks for future clinical and basic science research into Alzheimer’s treatments, potentially accelerating the pace of discovery dramatically.

The initiative has assembled a diverse team of both domestic and international experts to advance its work, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives that are rarely combined in traditional Alzheimer’s research. Among the leading global specialists joining the team is Ricardo Allegri, a prominent Argentine neurologist and psychiatrist with decades of acclaimed work in neuroscience and Alzheimer’s research. He will collaborate alongside local lead researcher Manuel Colomé, a professor at INTEC, as well as a cohort of specialized experts in artificial intelligence, molecular biology, and data science from institutions across the region and beyond.

Per statements from INTEC, the project carries far-reaching implications beyond the search for new Alzheimer’s tools and treatments. Institutional leaders noted that the successful execution of the initiative could establish the Dominican Republic as a leading regional hub for high-impact scientific research, technological innovation, and advanced translational health research. Most notably, the project is designed to serve as a global proof of concept, demonstrating how cross-sector collaboration, interdisciplinary expertise, and artificial intelligence can be leveraged to tackle some of the most pressing unmet global health challenges of the 21st century.

13 8 月, 2026
Diario Libre says JCE response leaves key questions about Spain trip unanswered

Transparency concerns have emerged around a 2025 official cybersecurity training trip taken by two senior members of the Dominican Republic’s Central Electoral Board (JCE) to Spain, after local newspaper Diario Libre revealed that the agency’s official response to public inquiries failed to refute key spending details, while leaving critical questions about costs, trip duration and policy compliance unanswered.

In a detailed response sent to the outlet, the JCE defended its mandate to carry out international professional activities and emphasized the growing critical importance of strengthening cybersecurity for electoral institutions. However, Diario Libre’s review of the response confirms the JCE did not challenge core reported facts: JCE board members Hirayda Fernández and Samir Chami Isa traveled to the Spanish city of León between July 12 and 26, 2025, and each received $12,000 in per diem payments, calculated at a daily rate of $800.

When combined with round-trip airfare for the two officials, the total public cost of the trip amounts to $33,294.27, according to the newspaper’s accounting.

A key point of contention raised by Diario Libre is the mismatch between the length of the trip and the duration of the training itself. The Cybersecurity Summer BootCamp the officials attended only ran from July 14 to 24, totaling roughly 40 hours of structured instruction. This 11-day training window leaves two extra days on the front end and two days on the back end of the 15-day trip unaccounted for, leading the outlet to question what official electoral business justifies collecting per diem for the full 15-day period.

The JCE has stated that it maintains full documentation of the trip’s itinerary, duration, travel arrangements and administrative justifications, and Diario Libre acknowledges that releasing these records to the public would be the clearest path to resolving outstanding questions. So far, however, the agency has not made these materials public.

A second unresolved issue centers on the JCE’s per diem policy itself. The agency cites Act 18/2005 as the legal basis that authorizes the $800 daily per diem rate for its board members, but Diario Libre reports that it has been unable to locate a public version of this legislation. The outlet is now calling on the JCE to publish the full text of the act, along with the official per diem rate schedule and any amendments that have been made to the policy since it was enacted.

Additional clarifications the newspaper has requested include a breakdown of what expenses the $800 daily payment is intended to cover – which typically includes accommodation, meals, local transit and incidentals in standard public per diem policies – as well as whether the JCE requires officials to return any unused per diem funds to public coffers.

While Diario Libre says it accepts the JCE’s position that international professional development and cybersecurity training are legitimate priorities for electoral management bodies, the outlet maintains that the inherent value of such work does not remove the obligation for public entities to account for how taxpayer money is spent, nor to demonstrate that spending is efficient and aligned with stated institutional goals.

In its conclusion, the newspaper stresses that the core of the dispute is not whether international travel or cybersecurity training is a justifiable use of public resources. Instead, the issue at hand is whether public funds are managed with full transparency, and whether every official trip can demonstrate clear, measurable benefits for the electoral institution that authorized it.

At present, Diario Libre is urging the JCE to meet public demand for accountability by publishing all relevant trip documentation, outlining its per diem policy in full, providing a detailed breakdown of all activities carried out by the two officials during their 15-day stay in Spain, and sharing the specific tangible outcomes the trip delivered for the JCE.

13 8 月, 2026