By Leandra Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEWLY appointed Minister of Social Services and Urban Development Obie Wilchcombe yesterday pledged to revamp social assistance initiatives for hurting Bahamians, saying there are too many people “living below the poverty line.”

Mr Wilchcombe spoke to reporters shortly after he took the oath of office at Baha Mar yesterday. He was one of 11 ministers who was sworn into the Davis-led Cabinet yesterday.

“I am delighted and very grateful to the prime minister for the vote of confidence because as he explained, we have so many who are living below the poverty line. We have so many hurting in our country, so much suffering,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

“My job is to alleviate poverty. My job is to declare war on poverty today and that we get a programme of transformation to ensure that we eliminate human suffering and bring a new day to people’s lives.”

Mr Wilchcombe served as the Minister of Tourism in two Christie administrations.

His appointment to the new post comes at a time when the country is facing one of its worst economic crises.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Bahamians were either laid off or temporarily furloughed after a near total shutdown of the nation’s leading tourism industry.

Although hundreds have returned to work since the country began its phased re-opening, many are still struggling to make ends meet and have been forced to rely on social agencies for help.

Yesterday, Mr Wilchcombe assured Bahamians that there will be an assessment of all the ministry’s programmes to determine their effectiveness and the way forward.

He said: “We’re going to look at all of the programmes to see what is working and what is not working and to see how best to continue to assist and where necessary do a new programme.

“The bottom line as we go through a pandemic, we should not have anyone living in substandard conditions or anyone hurting. Our job is to take care of the people. I've been given that responsibility and we will deliver.”

As for his priorities while in office, he said he wants to focus on providing housing and food assistance to the most vulnerable.

“The first thing that needs priority if you look at Grand Bahama for instance, there’s still so many people who still today, their homes are not repaired. They’re still living in squalor conditions following Hurricanes Matthew and following Hurricane Dorian so I want to make sure that we get to work on that immediately,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

“There are so many who do not know where to live so how do we find places for them to live. How do we ensure that they have a hot meal every day. We have to ensure that that happens. Urban Renewal, we’re going to look at the communities and see how best to transform these communities. I want to bring the marching bands back. I want to bring the communities back together and I want to make sure that we see transformation of people and people’s lives.”

He also said: “Too often, we’re told of individuals given a one week stay or a two week stay and then what? Then they’re back on the streets. You're causing more pain and hurt in the society. You must remember what AD Hanna said, ‘wipe the tear from every eye.’ Remember what Sir Lynden Pindling said, ‘bring peace to every heart.’ That’s going to be how we drive our ministry.”

Also speaking to reporters yesterday was Minister of Grand Bahama Ginger Moxey, who said food security and job employment were top priorities for her ministry.

“The major key right now is people don’t have jobs and many of them are going to bed hungry,” she told reporters yesterday. “The key really right now is going in and assessing the situation, but also bringing in some immediate relief and the Progressive Liberal Party does have a plan and we have an economic plan.

“We also have our ten point plan that focuses on bringing back Grand Bahama and Abaco and Dorian really hurt us bad and the pandemic was right after and so we’re going to look at ways to address those that are still hurting from Dorian and so the first order of business is bringing some relief, but, of course, I have to go into office and assess the situation and move on from there.”

After yesterday’s ceremony, there are now 22 ministers in Cabinet.