标签： Barbados

On a vibrant Saturday morning in Bridgetown, more than 30 young children converged on the Barbados National Library Service located on Fairchild Street for an interactive Caribbean Storytime session led by acclaimed author Yolanda T. Marshall.

Marshall, a Canadian writer with mixed Barbadian and Guyanese heritage, brought a curated selection of her most beloved children’s works to the event. The lineup included fan favorites *Sweet Sorrel Stand*, *What’s in the Cookie Tin?*, and *A Piece of Black Cake for Santa*, alongside her latest release, *Marching North*—a picture book centered on Bajan cultural identity.

Though crafted for a young audience, each of Marshall’s stories weaves in nuanced themes tied to the lived experience of the Caribbean diaspora. Food traditions, musical heritage, cultural belonging, and the sacrifices that shape migrant journeys all emerge as core threads running through her work, creating stories that resonate with both children and adult attendees.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY conducted on the sidelines of the reading, Marshall opened up about the deep personal meaning this event held for her. Long before her in-person visit, she had discovered through online research that her titles were part of the Barbados National Library’s permanent collection, and she had made a promise to herself that she would visit the institution to host a reading on her next trip to the island.

“I’m so happy to be in the national library. For many years, I’ve looked online and seen that my books are housed here, and I promised myself that when I visited Barbados, I had to come here and do a reading,” Marshall shared.

A seasoned literary event host who leads hundreds of reading sessions each year across Canada, the United States, and multiple Caribbean nations, Marshall emphasized that this Bridgetown gathering stood out among her hundreds of annual engagements.

“Today was extra special to be present in Barbados, where my books have a home in the National Library. It was wonderful to interact with the kids who, like myself, are Caribbean-born children, and it was a wonderful day to celebrate literacy,” she added.

A violent shooting incident in the Brittons New Road neighborhood of Brittons Hill, St. Michael, has left one man wounded and in ongoing medical care, as law enforcement in Barbados launches a full investigation and calls on the public for critical tips to catch the attackers.

The attack unfolded shortly after 9:10 p.m. local time on Friday, when the unidentified male victim was approached by a group of suspects near a local commercial business, according to official statements from the Barbados Police Service. After being confronted, the victim attempted to escape the encounter, but the group of armed assailants chased him down and opened fire, striking him with at least one bullet.

Rather than waiting for emergency medical transport, the injured man was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in a private vehicle by associates. As of the latest police update, he remains admitted at the facility, where clinical teams continue to treat him for his gunshot injuries.

The investigation into the shooting is currently being led by detectives assigned to the Hastings/Worthing Police District. To advance the case and identify and apprehend the attackers, law enforcement officials are urgently asking any member of the public who may have been in the area Friday night, witnessed the confrontation or shooting, or has any other information related to the incident to come forward.

Tipsters can share information anonymously through the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-8477, contact the 24/7 police emergency line at 211, or reach investigators directly at the Hastings/Worthing Police Station through the dedicated contact numbers 430-7612 and 430-7608. Police have not yet released additional details about possible motives for the attack or descriptions of the suspects as the inquiry remains ongoing.

The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) has publicly signaled that it holds no core opposition to a recent policy move from the Ministry of Education, which has approved early summer closure for a targeted group of primary schools across the island. The early shutdown is designed to create a clear window to carry out much-needed infrastructural improvement projects before the new academic term begins.

In an official public statement, the teachers’ union emphasized that upgrading outdated learning environments has been a longstanding priority on its advocacy agenda. For years, the organization has pushed for government investment to modernize school facilities that directly impact the daily experiences of both learners and education workers. As such, the union says it fully endorses the comprehensive upgrade initiative, which aims to deliver safer, more functional spaces that support high-quality teaching and better learning outcomes for all stakeholders.

Despite this broad backing, the BUT has not shied away from flagging a key potential risk that could trigger its opposition. The union’s core concern centers on project timelines: if contractors fail to complete all scheduled renovation and upgrade work by the end of the scheduled summer vacation period, the knock-on effect would disrupt the planned reopening of schools and throw off the delivery of planned instruction when the new academic year gets underway. The implicit message from the union is that it will hold both the Ministry of Education and contracted work teams accountable for meeting the established timeline to avoid negative impacts on students and staff.

For more than six weeks, residents of the quiet Christ Church neighborhood of St David’s have endured a daily battle to access basic drinking water, a crisis that has upended routine life, strained household budgets, and sparked growing fears over public health – all compounded by a near-total lack of clear, consistent communication from local water officials, according to multiple community members who spoke to local outlet Barbados TODAY.

The island’s ongoing dry season has made the intermittent supply even more punishing. Locals described a grueling daily schedule that now revolves around chasing scarce water: many wake in the pre-dawn hours to scramble for whatever small amount of water trickles through their taps, while others rely on infrequent water truck deliveries and costly store-bought bottled water to meet their families’ needs.

Residents say the outage stems from a burst water main, a problem that was initially rumored to take just two weeks to repair. Those timelines have long since expired, with no official update or resolution put forward by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). The little water that does reach homes almost exclusively flows in the dead of night, forcing residents to sacrifice critical sleep just to fill enough containers for basic hygiene, cooking and household chores.

“It’s been off since early April,” one anonymous resident explained. “It’d be mostly coming back on at nighttime, so you have to get up if you want to go to work to catch water. When you come home to cook something, you go scramble to get the little drops that start coming out. The situation real stiff, real stiff for real.”

For some, the water shortage is far more than a daily inconvenience: it threatens both personal health and small livelihoods. A 61-year-old small business owner who keeps livestock shared that he has been forced to stay up through the night to collect every possible drop of water to keep his chickens alive. “I’m affected very badly. This is six weeks now, we haven’t had water,” he said. “And if it come at night, one o’clock in the morning, we have to full every saucepan. I have chickens; I have to replenish the water as it comes to make sure they do not die. I never ever seen nothing like this yet. Never.”

Many residents have lost trust in the water supplied by BWA tankers for drinking, especially for children, leading to added financial strain on top of the physical exhaustion of the daily water scramble. “I don’t drink water from the tank [truck borne water provided by BWA]. I buy bottled water,” one resident said. “We have children and we have to send them to school. We can’t risk drinking water provided by the water tanker. We have to buy water for the children to make tea. Please come and tell us something, say something. It will mean a lot if you all come and tell us something, please.”

Another resident, hurrying to collect water before it stopped flowing again, summed up the community’s collective exhaustion: “It’s a lot. You got a bucket in the bath to catch water. Last night it ain’t even come on until about three o’clock. That ain’t easy, boy. Not easy.”

In a response to inquiries about the crisis, the BWA acknowledged the ongoing disruptions, attributing the intermittent outages and low pressure to consistently low water levels at the pumping station that serves St David’s and surrounding districts. The authority issued a formal apology to customers for the service disruption, noting that it will continue to provide temporary water access via its fleet of tanker trucks while crews work to resolve the underlying issue.