标签： Barbados

When natural disasters and humanitarian crises strike, the heightened danger of gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls is often pushed to the margins of emergency response — a gap that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is working to close through a new pre-crisis preparedness initiative in partnership with the Barbados government.

Kicking off Monday at UN House in Hastings, a two-day multi-stakeholder workshop brought together representatives from government agencies, UN bodies, and community organizations to strengthen cross-sector coordination and build robust protection frameworks for vulnerable groups ahead of future disasters. The event is led by UNFPA in collaboration with Barbados’ Bureau of Gender Affairs, centered on a core premise: emergency protection systems cannot be built from scratch when a crisis is already unfolding.

Jenny Karlsen, Deputy Director of UNFPA’s Subregional Office for the Caribbean, told local outlet Barbados TODAY that pre-disaster coordination is critical to preventing GBV response from being deprioritized amid competing emergency needs. “When a disaster hits, immediate priorities like securing clean water and food understandably take the spotlight, but the reality is that risks of gender-based violence spike dramatically in these chaotic, disrupted settings,” Karlsen explained. “Without pre-existing systems in place, protection needs for women and girls are too often overlooked when they are most at risk.”

Over the course of the workshop, participants are mapping coordinated service delivery across government ministries and non-governmental sectors, exploring strategies to center youth input in solution-building, and addressing often-overlooked specific needs of women and girls. One key topic of discussion is integrating menstrual hygiene management into disaster preparedness: the group is working to establish protocols for pre-positioning and distributing sanitary hygiene products to vulnerable communities, a basic need that regularly goes unmet in emergency response.

A major systemic barrier the workshop aims to address is the global and local gap in disaggregated data on disaster-related GBV. Currently, underreporting and weak reporting mechanisms mean experts lack an accurate picture of how many women and girls are affected during crises. Many survivors avoid coming forward to report abuse due to stigma, unsafe conditions, and lack of accessible reporting pathways — challenges that are amplified in the aftermath of disasters. UNFPA’s initiative prioritizes expanding data collection and reforming existing reporting frameworks to make it safer and easier for survivors to seek support.

The gathering also turned attention to an emerging, rapidly growing threat: virtual and online gender-based violence. Karlsen noted that global data shows a steady rise in online abuse against women and girls, and the impacts of this form of violence during disasters are still not fully understood. As part of its global work to address this gap, UNFPA has already rolled out capacity-building workshops to analyze emerging evidence on online GBV, but much remains to be learned about its specific dynamics during crises.

Last year, UNFPA’s Caribbean subregion released research examining online violence against women in public life, which confirmed the trend of rising digital abuse across the region. “Online GBV affects every woman and girl, from young people growing up in a digital world to women in public leadership,” Karlsen said. “Addressing this evolving challenge requires coordinated action across legislation, policy, and public awareness. It is an emerging threat that we can no longer afford to ignore as we build more inclusive, effective disaster preparedness systems.”

A 40-year-old education professional has secured her release on $3,000 bail following an appearance in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, where she formally entered a not guilty plea to a single count of malicious communication.

Sheriann Norris, a resident of Austin’s Drive in St Michael, stood before Acting Chief Magistrate Douglas Frederick to answer the charge brought against her. Court documents allege that between the first of March and the seventh of April this year, Norris utilized a computer system to transmit an electronic message described as obscene. Prosecutors contend the communication was either intentionally created to trigger annoyance, inconvenience, significant distress or acute anxiety in the complainant, Akhnaten Burrowes, or that Norris acted with reckless disregard for the harm the message could cause.

Norris has repeatedly denied all allegations connected to the charge. Following the preliminary hearing, the court scheduled the next procedural step in the case for July 14, when all involved parties will reconvene to move the legal process forward.

Against a backdrop of rising youth disengagement and growing public concern over antisocial behavior among young people, the government of Barbados has launched a transformative annual BBD 5 million fund to empower faith-based organizations to lead targeted interventions addressing youth deviance, while supporting skills building, employment inclusion, and the reinforcement of positive community values.

Third Sector Minister Colin Jordan made the formal announcement during the annual Faith-based Symposium hosted Friday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, which convened religious leaders and community organizers under the central theme “Building Our Young People, Our Future, Our Legacy”. In his keynote address, Jordan emphasized that funding is not the end goal of the initiative, but merely a strategic tool to deliver meaningful, long-term change.

“Funding is not the goal. Funding is merely an instrument. Impact is the goal: changing lives, changing perspectives, changing outlooks. That is the goal of the fund that government has set up. Transformation is the goal,” Jordan told attendees. He explained that the dedicated annual fund was established specifically to address the persistent resource gaps many faith-based organizations have faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which stretched community organizational budgets and limited their ability to expand youth programming.

The funding is open to both expanding existing successful programs and launching new, innovative interventions aligned with the initiative’s core objectives. For established projects, the support will strengthen programming that keeps young people engaged in constructive activities, equips them with market-relevant practical skills, and opens clear pathways to formal employment and small business entrepreneurship. For emerging ideas, the fund is designed to back new guidance and development projects that faith leaders believe can deliver meaningful impact for local youth populations.

As the initiative moves toward final implementation, government has shared a draft framework with symposium attendees and is actively soliciting feedback to refine the proposal before it receives final Cabinet approval. Jordan noted that the draft has already been submitted for Cabinet review, but policymakers intentionally paused formal approval to center input from the faith organizations that will lead the work on the ground. “We use this opportunity in the ministry to hear perspectives and to see if there are any tweaks, any adjustments that we have to make, or if you feel it is so badly put together that we have to toss it out and start fresh,” Jordan said, underscoring the government’s commitment to collaborative, community-led design.

Jordan stressed that the initiative’s success will be measured by tangible, quantifiable outcomes rather than good intentions alone. Key performance indicators will include increased youth participation in structured positive programming, expanded access to certified skills training and employment pathways, measurable reductions in youth involvement in crime and antisocial behavior, stronger family and community connections, and the broader embedding of positive moral and social values among young program participants. The overarching vision, he explained, is to nurture a generation of young Barbadians that are both employable and socially responsible, ambitious but rooted in community, skilled and guided by strong ethical principles.

Accountability for public fund expenditure is also a core requirement of the initiative. “Good intentions must be translated into well-designed programmes where vision is supported by planning and passion, met with measurable targets. We must be able to look back and see whether or not our expenditure has been met with the results we expected,” Jordan said.

Beyond direct project funding, the symposium also focused on building long-term organizational capacity for faith-based groups, ensuring they have the spiritual, administrative, and strategic resources needed to deliver sustainable impact. To help organizations develop competitive, high-quality funding proposals, the government has partnered with Karen Phillips, founder of Kainos Caribbean, to deliver targeted training in grant writing and proposal development. Jordan noted that many community groups have strong, impactful ideas but lack the technical skills to present those ideas clearly to funders, and the training is designed to remove that barrier.

Outlining the broader social and economic benefits of the initiative, Jordan framed the investment in youth development as a catalyst for whole-community transformation. “When young people are trained, certified and supported, they transition more effectively into the labour market, they become contributors rather than dependents, and they become innovators rather than bystanders,” he said. “When communities rally around their young people, something powerful happens. Hope replaces despair, purpose replaces idleness, and peace replaces disorder.”

The weeks-long build-up to the annual University of the West Indies Cave Hill Law Week reached its glamorous conclusion Thursday evening, as the legal community gathered at Barbados’ Savannah Beach Hotel for the coveted Law Society Legal Regal Gala. Framed around the creative theme of “Masquerade Night”, the event brought a refined, celebratory atmosphere to one of the law faculty’s most anticipated annual traditions.

Organized jointly by the student-run Law Society executive committee and the UWI Cave Hill Faculty of Law, the Legal Regal Gala has grown into a signature gathering that bridges classroom learning and professional connection, bringing students, faculty and established legal professionals together for an evening of dinner, networking and recognition. This year’s gathering drew a roster of distinguished guests, led by guest of honor Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia. In attendance alongside Pierre were Dr. Antonius R. Hippolyte, Dean of the Faculty of Law; Dr. Ronnie Yearwood, Deputy Dean of Academic and Student Affairs; and faculty members Carla Ali and Jaydene Thomas.

In opening remarks, outgoing Law Society President Darrion Poyotte-Lionel reflected on the event’s core purpose, noting that it gives aspiring legal professionals space to celebrate their progress through the notoriously rigorous curriculum of legal education. “Legal Regal has always stood as a hallmark event within the faculty—one that brings together students, faculty, and members of the wider legal community in a space that is both professional and celebratory,” Poyotte-Lionel told attendees. “It is a reminder that while the study of law is rigorous, it is also deeply human—built on relationships, shared experiences, and a collective pursuit of growth.”

As a UWI alumnus himself, Pierre brought a personal perspective to his keynote address, opening by highlighting the institution’s long legacy of shaping influential leaders who have gone on to make transformative impacts across global academia and professional industries. Beyond celebrating that legacy, the Prime Minister—who also holds cabinet portfolios for finance, constituency development, people empowerment, justice and national security—laid out a series of urgent priorities UWI must address to retain its position as the Caribbean’s leading academic institution.

Pierre emphasized that academic programs and administrative processes must evolve continuously to meet modern demands, identifying intentional technology integration as a critical investment to keep UWI the top higher education choice for students across the region. He also called for the development of a sustainable, ideally self-financing operating model with full buy-in from regional governments, warning that a lack of coordinated support risks increasing fragmentation of the cross-national institution.

A core point of Pierre’s address centered on expanding access for economically marginalized students, outlining a new initiative his own government has launched to open higher education to more Saint Lucians. His administration’s “one university per household” project, partially funded by the state, offers full-tuition first-generation scholarships to students with no prior family history of university attendance. “These policies seek to create some level of equity and the basis for wealth creation, and an end to intergenerational poverty,” Pierre explained.

The Prime Minister went on to touch on other pressing regional and global challenges, including climate change, economic diversification, technological innovation, and public security, framing each as a priority for emerging leaders graduating from UWI. He urged the student audience to develop context-specific solutions for the challenges within their reach, stressing that the university plays an irreplaceable role in navigating an increasingly shifting global geopolitical landscape.

“The UWI must never lose its place as a leader in the world of intellectual, social and economical activism. A place where critical thinking prevails, but it must also be able to provide solutions for problems of decision makers,” Pierre added.

Following the keynote, the evening continued with structured networking opportunities for students to connect with faculty and legal practitioners, alongside special awards recognizing outstanding academic achievement from first, second and third-year law students. Attendees were also treated to live entertainment performed by fellow Faculty of Law students, before the event closed with the official public announcement of the 2026–2027 Law Society Executive leadership team.

In the quiet rural community of Bayleys Plantation Road in St Philip, Barbados, a decades-long public health crisis has finally been brought to light by frustrated local residents, who say repeated illegal dumping of waste — including decaying animal carcasses and discarded household appliances — has upended their daily lives and damaged local livelihoods.

Local farmer Alvin Wilson, one of the most vocal critics of the ongoing problem, recently spoke out against those responsible for the reckless dumping, describing the toll the unregulated waste has taken on the area’s residents and farms. When a reporter from Barbados TODAY visited the community this Friday, Wilson led a tour of multiple dumping sites along the main highway, where discarded old refrigerators, stoves and other large appliances sit abandoned alongside piles of general household rubbish.

The most alarming find, however, lies on the only access road leading to Wilson’s home, his farm, and the properties of his neighbors: a large flour bag stuffed full of dead chickens, swarming with flies and emitting a putrid stench that hangs in the air along the entire stretch of road. Wilson explained that this type of dumping is far from an isolated incident. For years, the area has been a regular dumping ground for unwanted waste, ranging from dead farm animals to broken home appliances.

“Mostly it’s dead animals we find here — chickens, sometimes pigs, sometimes sheep,” he said. “And it’s not just animals. You also get old fridges, old stoves, all kinds of rubbish. This has been going on for years now.” The stench from decomposing animal carcasses is so strong that it has immediate health impacts for anyone passing by. Wilson told reporters he already had a splitting headache on the day of the visit, brought on by direct exposure to the foul odor coming from the latest dump site.

This most recent batch of dead chickens was dumped earlier this week, Wilson said — and brazenly, in the middle of the day, not under cover of darkness that dumpers usually rely on. “I’d say it was Tuesday afternoon this was dumped here, not even at night. It was broad daylight when they left that batch of dead chickens right here,” he explained, gesturing to the fly-blown bag behind him.

What makes the situation particularly untenable for local residents is that this dumping is happening on the only road connecting their homes and farms to the rest of the island. Every single person who lives or works in the area has to pass the dumping sites multiple times a day, no exceptions. “You have to pass there to get home, and you have to pass there to get to the farmlands — this entire area is surrounded by agricultural land,” Wilson said.

The stretch of road from Mapps to Golden Grove has become the preferred dumping ground for perpetrators, he explained, because it is poorly lit at night, making it easy for truck drivers and even local homeowners to drop off unwanted waste unseen. But what worries Wilson most is that dumpers have become so emboldened by the lack of enforcement that they are now willing to dump in broad daylight, a sign the problem is growing worse rather than improving. “Something needs to be done about these culprits,” he emphasized.

Longtime resident Wilbert Gollop, who has lived in the area for 16 years, confirmed that the illegal dumping has been a persistent problem throughout his time in the community. He recalled one Sunday after returning home from worship at the Kingdom Hall, he found a large, dead ram sheep bloated and stinking right on the roadside just a short distance from where he stood speaking to reporters.

Gollop also had his own run-in with the bag of dead chickens, discovering it shortly after dumpers left it on the road. He said that in addition to dumping dead animals, some irresponsible actors have even released live chickens onto the roadside, where the animals are left to starve to death before becoming part of the waste problem. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They release dozens of live chickens here, and with no one to feed them, they all die along the road,” Gollop said. “It’s pigs, it’s dogs, mainly chickens — they just come dump whenever they feel like it, no regard for anyone who lives here. It’s ridiculous. You wouldn’t want this dumped outside your door, so why do it to us?”

Unlike waste handled by official authorities, residents are forced to clean up the mess dumpers leave behind, Gollop explained. When the dead ram was dumped near his home, it was so close that flies from the carcass began moving into his house, leaving him no choice but to handle the disposal himself. “I had to drag it out to the pasture, get wood and tires, and burn it myself. That should never have been my job,” he said. “If you’re raising chickens and making money from it, why should local residents be stuck with the cost and work of disposing your waste? Why do you get to dump it next to people’s homes and on our road?”

For Wilson, the problem is not just a public health nuisance — it is an active threat to his livelihood. His farm, which grows pumpkins, butternut squash, watermelon, okra and cucumbers, relies on customers being able to access his property to buy produce. Now, many customers refuse to travel through the foul-smelling, partially blocked road, and Wilson is losing critical revenue as a result.

“This year, customers aren’t coming back through here because it stinks, and the road is blocked,” he said. “I’m losing revenue right now. I’ve had to start delivering all my produce to customers myself, which takes time I don’t have — and I don’t get compensated for that extra time and cost. What’s worse, some customers tell me they just won’t come at all anymore, so I end up stuck with produce I can’t sell. Sometimes sales get delayed for days just because we can’t get products out easily.”

Wilson said he has already reached out to the Sanitation Service Authority and the Ministry of Health to report the ongoing problem, and during Barbados TODAY’s visit to the area, reporters observed health inspectors conducting an on-site assessment of the dumping sites.

In closing, Wilson issued a direct plea to those responsible for the dumping to change their behavior immediately. “Stop the dumping,” he urged. “If you have dead animals to dispose of, call the relevant authorities and let them handle the waste properly. At the end of the day, this is affecting real people’s lives. Don’t put us through something you would never want to deal with yourself.”