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A landmark graduation ceremony unfolded at Nassau’s Word of Truth Ministries this week, where nine young men between the ages of 14 and 19 crossed the stage to mark the end of a four-month intensive leadership and life skills development journey through the NexGen Young Men Mentorship Programme. As the fourth cohort of participants to complete the nation-focused initiative, these trainees built foundational capabilities over 10 skill-building workshops and two orientation sessions held between March and June 2024.

The program’s curriculum was crafted to address gaps in youth preparation for adulthood, covering far more than standard academic learning. Workshop topics ranged from core professional competencies like leadership, communication, and financial literacy to practical life skills including etiquette, home maintenance, basic automotive care, and personal health and wellness. The curriculum is intentionally designed to equip participants for both long-term career success and active community engagement, aligning with the program’s core theme: “Serve Locally, Lead Globally, Building Character, Capacity, and Commitment to Country”.

Founded by former Bahamian senator Ronald Duncombe, NexGen operates as an entirely nonpartisan initiative, open to young men from all political backgrounds with no party affiliation requirements for entry. Duncombe explained that every applicant undergoes a rigorous vetting interview to confirm their genuine commitment to personal growth before being accepted into the cohort. This selective process has cultivated a group of driven young people with clear, ambitious career goals spanning high-demand and public-facing fields, from neurosurgery and aviation to engineering, politics, and other areas of public service.

Duncombe praised the cohort’s clarity of purpose, noting that unlike many teens their age who may be uncertain about their future paths, these graduates spoke with unwavering conviction about their intended careers. “I am so proud to say to you that we have some future leaders and future men coming in our country,” he shared in his address to attendees. The graduation event drew high-level government representation, including three sitting Bahamian Cabinet ministers: Fred Mitchell, Pia Glover-Rolle, and Keith Bell. Senator Clint Watson delivered official remarks on behalf of Prime Minister Philip Davis, reinforcing the government’s recognition of the program’s value for national youth development.

During the ceremony, each graduate received a professional briefcase, a symbolic gift representing their readiness to enter professional spaces and pursue new opportunities. Duncombe urged the new graduates to prioritize three core principles as they move forward: protecting their personal reputations, building intentional professional and community relationships, and always showing up prepared for interviews, meetings, and unexpected opportunities that will shape their futures. He also highlighted the long-term impact of the program, noting that previous NexGen cohorts have gone on to build successful careers across a wide range of critical national sectors, including the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, media and communications, accounting, professional sports, and aviation.

In his remarks, Senator Watson emphasized that professional preparedness and presentation are only the first step to lasting success. He stressed that consistent character, intentional action, and reliable commitment to fulfilling responsibilities are far more critical to achieving long-term goals. Cabinet Minister Fred Mitchell centered his keynote address on a pressing public issue facing Caribbean youth: pervasive interpersonal violence among young men. He urged the graduates to reject cycles of conflict and make deliberate, forward-thinking choices that will allow them to build long, productive lives that contribute to their communities.

Speaking on behalf of the 2024 graduating cohort, class representative Fisk Burrows Jr. reflected on the transformative impact of the program. He shared that the four-month journey had not only built critical practical skills but also strengthened the graduates’ overall confidence, fostered greater personal independence, and deepened their understanding of what ethical, effective leadership requires for community and national progress.

For Ingrid Francois, a rainy Sunday morning in July began like any other. When bad weather derailed her 27-year-old son Antonio Cartwright’s usual skateboard commute to his job, she offered him a ride, still with no idea that it would be the final time she would see him alive. Four days later, her worst fears were confirmed when Cartwright’s body was discovered hanging from a tree in dense brush near Hacio Point Close, in what authorities are investigating as a suspected suicide.

The tragedy has sparked sharp questions from Francois about both law enforcement’s handling of her missing person report and the quality of mental health care her son received in the months before his death. Cartwright, a hardworking and ambitious painter with a side business planning event decorations, had received a formal schizophrenia diagnosis earlier in 2024. Just two days before he vanished, he attended a routine psychiatric appointment that left Francois deeply unsettled about the direction of his treatment.

According to the official missing person filing, Cartwright was last spotted around 8:30 a.m. on July 19 at his workplace, CBS Bahamas, located in Southwest Plaza. His typical routine after work saw him clock out at 5:30 p.m. and make the 30-minute skateboard trip home. When he failed to arrive that evening and did not respond to repeated calls and texts, Francois knew something was wrong. She immediately filed a missing person report with local police, but walked away frustrated when officers told her the official search process would not begin for another 24 hours.

“I told them he’d already been missing for 25 hours,” Francois said in an interview. “Y’all have to move faster than that.” Beyond the initial delay, Francois claims that law enforcement failed to follow through on critical information she provided that could have led to an earlier discovery of her son’s body. She told officers that Cartwright often spoke about the brush-lined track road where his body was eventually found, and explicitly urged them to search the dense vegetation along the route. But according to Francois, officers only drove past the area on Monday and never actually entered the bushes to conduct a thorough search.

It was not until last Thursday that the search ended with the grim discovery: Cartwright’s nephew, part of a family search party that returned to the area after police called off their initial sweep, ventured into the brush and found the body. The young man remained on scene in a state of shock until other relatives called him out of the vegetation.

To his mother, Cartwright was far more than a statistics on a missing person list or a name in a tragedy report. He was a driven, creative young man constantly chasing new opportunities to build a better life. A skilled commercial painter, he regularly took on high-risk jobs scaling the exterior walls of tall buildings to complete work — once sending his mother a photo taken from such a great height that pedestrians on the ground looked no bigger than ants.

Never content to stick to one line of work, Cartwright was also building his own small business renting decorative lighting for parties and special events, choosing to carve out a niche separate from the more common balloon decoration ventures that dominate the local market. Just days before his disappearance, he asked his mother for a power drill to work on another new side project. But Francois said her son’s string of entrepreneurial ventures had hit a series of devastating setbacks in recent months, leaving him struggling to regain his financial footing.

“He started to do a lot of different jobs and everything crumbled,” Francois said. “To get back on his feet, I think it was a struggle, and he probably didn’t want to face all of that.” Even after his schizophrenia diagnosis earlier this year, Cartwright remained determined to keep working and pursue his goals, a resilience his mother remembers fondly. It was the Friday before his disappearance that the family attended the troubling medical appointment, where providers discussed adjusting the frequency of Cartwright’s medication. Francois left the appointment deeply unhappy with the interaction, and says she plans to launch a private review of what transpired during the visit.

“That session was not good and that’s something I’m going to look into because I didn’t like the session at all,” she said. She questioned why medical staff did not take more urgent action when Cartwright displayed signs of irrational speech during the appointment, noting that she left the meeting with a deep sense of unease that something bad would happen.

That Sunday rain that led Francois to drive her son to work ended up giving the pair one last unexpected moment together. She fixed him breakfast before the drive, and as she dropped him off, she reminded him not to fill up on snacks before she made dinner that evening. “I said, ‘Antonio, don’t eat anything heavy. Mommy’s going to cook today,’” she recalled. “But this time, he didn’t say anything back.”

Francois now sees that rainy morning as a final gift, giving her one last chance to care for her son before he died. She also views the way he left his skateboard, propped neatly against the family lawn, as a quiet farewell, a sign that he had found peace in his final moments. Even weeks after the tragedy, she says she still struggles to process what happened. “To this day, I still can’t believe it,” she said. “I feel like he could walk through the door, but I know he’s gone.”

A devastating workplace accident has shaken the tight-knit community of Grand Cay in the Bahamas, where a 35-year-old Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) employee and small business owner died from electrocution while on the job Tuesday evening.

Lawrence Cooper, who had served BPL for more than five years and ran his own ferry service on the island, was performing maintenance on a high-voltage utility pole shortly before 9 p.m. when the incident occurred. First responders rushed the injured worker to Grand Cay’s local clinic, but he was pronounced dead just an hour after arriving at the facility.

The sudden loss has left Cooper’s family and neighbors reeling, with his uncle Maxwell Cooper describing the tragedy as an unexpected blow. Maxwell, who raised Lawrence and taught him most of his technical skills while the pair lived in the same family compound for years, spoke to local outlet The Tribune while waiting to transport his nephew’s remains off the island. “Everybody liked him. The whole community liked him. He was a nice boy. He liked boats,” Maxwell shared, noting that the entire community is struggling to process the sudden passing.

In an official statement released the day after the incident, BPL confirmed that formal investigations into the fatal accident are already underway, and offered its full condolences to Cooper’s family, friends, and colleagues. The utility company added that it is prioritizing support for affected staff and will release further details as the investigation progresses. Energy Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis also announced that BPL CEO Toni Pratt will lead an official delegation to Abaco to meet with on-island staff and coordinate support for the team in Grand Cay. “We remain deeply grateful to BPL’s teams for continued dedication to restoring electricity for consumers. However, this tragedy serves as a reminder that the safety and security of our employees must remain our highest priority,” the minister said.

Kirk Cornish, the Member of Parliament for North Abaco, echoed the national mood of mourning, remembering Cooper as a deeply dedicated public servant. “This tragedy was a solemn reminder of the risks faced by the men and women who work daily to keep the country’s electricity system running,” Cornish said. “As we mourn this heartbreaking loss, let us keep his family and all who knew and loved him in our thoughts and prayers.”

Cooper’s death marks the second fatal electrocution in the Bahamas in the span of just one month, and it comes amid a growing string of deadly workplace accidents across the country that have reignited widespread public concern over national industrial safety standards. Just one week prior to the Grand Cay incident, 68-year-old painter and contractor John Walkes was killed by electrocution while working at the Bimini Blue Water Marina, when he made accidental contact with energized high-voltage equipment.