The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

SOME women’s rights advocates are sceptical of the government’s plan to build a shelter for women victims of abuse.

The Tribune spoke to representatives of Equality Bahamas, Women United and Family of All Murder Victims (FOAM) after Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis announced during his budget communication that money has been allocated to build a shelter for domestic violence victims.

Women United public relations director Lisa Bostwick-Dean said while she is happy to see action on something discussed for years, she does not want the shelter operated solely by the government.

“One of our seven demands was shelters for women, so in as much as the government is stating that they are placing it on their agenda and they are funding it, we are of course pleased,” she said. “However, we cannot help but also be a bit sceptical because they put $500,000 in the last budget, and we are not sure how that money was allocated.

“We think that it is best for shelters to be run as public-private partnerships with the government. But of course, if the choice is a government-run shelter or no shelter, we’ll take what we can get. But ideally, we feel that shelters are best run as public-private partnerships.”

Khandi Gibson, director of FOAM, said she doesn’t believe the government should run shelters.

“It should be NGOs in conjunction with the government or NGOs partnered with the government,” she said.

“I feel as though the government should give subsidised funding toward information, sponsorship and partnership of shelters in The Bahamas.”

Meanwhile, Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas, said responding to domestic violence requires more than a building.

“It’s 2023. We don’t have to keep using the same old method that we’ve used before, like shelters,” she said. “It’s time to start looking at alternatives and looking at ways that we could remove the perpetrator from the home so that the others can continue to live with some amount of comfort, and there should be security measures provided for them.”

“The amount that it takes for survivors of domestic violence to live on their own often exceeds the amount of time that they can stay in a shelter, so there is a constant demand for more shelters and for the government to support the couple of NGOs that are running and maintaining shelters right now.

“There is definitely a question about whether or not it’s safe for a shelter to be operated by a government, because we know the way that information is transferred in this country. We know that many abusers are in positions of power with this kind of information. So we need to look at the security aspect of this and who is going to be holders of the information regarding the shelters.”