By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AMID concerns over delays in the creation of a domestic violence shelter, Minister of Social Services Myles Laroda said it is on the government’s agenda and will be completed shortly.

While in Grand Bahama on Thursday, the minister was asked about the status of the government-promised shelter for victims and survivors of domestic violence.

“Stay tuned, it is coming; it is on the agenda,” he told The Tribune. “The government, as we speak, is in the process of acquiring a facility which has already been identified.

“It is just going through the paperwork and the acquisition. We won’t say the place because we want to protect those individuals who would be staying there. But stay tuned. Words say anything; we will lead by example; we show better than we can tell.”

Even though some $500,000 has been allocated by the government for the establishment of a facility, FNM Senator Maxine Seymour, Shadow Minister for Social Services, said women are still awaiting a promised shelter.

Women groups have been advocating for a safe haven that will provide relief for abused women and girls from their abusers.

There have also been criticisms that the Department of Gender and Family Affairs has been ineffective.

A women’s rights advocate complained there is no director and that the Department has done nothing of substance, even during the Global 16 Days Campaign and Women’s History Month, and said the Gender-Based Violence Bill had been “completely abandoned”. Alicia Wallace, of Equality Bahamas, also said that requests for a meeting with the minister had not received a response.

She said: “Equality Bahamas has been, through the Department of Gender and Family Affairs, been requesting a meeting with the Minister since 2023 and has yet to receive a substantive response. There should be no fear of meeting with an NGO, and there certainly should not be a non-response. We call on the minister to schedule a meeting with us or communicate that he is unwilling to meet stakeholders.

“There is limited information available on the plan for the shelters. There is a difference, for example, between an emergency shelter which tends to be very short-term, as limited as one night, and more long-term accommodations for survivors of domestic violence who, obviously, have to leave their places of residences. How long will women be housed at the shelter? Will women with children, and boy children over the age of 12 in particular, be accommodated? What additional support will be provided to those accommodated by the

shelter? The basic needs of survivors range from food and hygiene products to physical and mental health services.”

However, Mr Laroda said a director had been appointed. He said Melvelyn Symonette had been there for a while, and prior to that, Dr Jacinta Higgs had been appointed by the former administration to serve as the director.