LOOKING BACK ON OUR IMPACT IN tHE BAHAMAS
May 26, 2022
April 2022 marked the final days of our three-year disaster response and recovery program in The Bahamas. We are proud to wrap up this program knowing how many community members felt supported during a time of devastation, seeing the overall impact on the island, and sharing memories and experiences with volunteers, staff and citizens of The Bahamas.
With volunteer time amounting to 20,246 hours, our teams on the ground worked on 141 houses, 23 community projects and 8 schools, impacting 2,574 beneficiaries. Though you can see through these numbers the impact our efforts made, it doesn’t put into words the raw connections we made with the community along the way.
DORIAN’S LANDFALL IN THE BAHAMAS
Hurricanes are a part of the natural rhythm of life in The Bahamas. While the communities may not get a direct hit, they know to be watching for one. Their ancestors lived with these events long before and remained to build a life on these islands. Before 2019, Bahamians had a healthy respect for the power of hurricanes. Dorian changed that.
In late August 2019, Dorian was on a trajectory for Abaco and Grand Bahama as a category 1-2 hurricane. Those living on these islands knew the drill and began making preparations. The storm quickly escalated to a category 5 hurricane in nine hours and would bombard these islands for 48 hours. Families were conflicted between staying and riding out the storm or evacuating. Most who stayed would come to wish they had left. record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall. After striking at high tide, Dorian’s traveling speed slowed to 1 mph over Grand Bahama, prolonging the island’s exposure to a life-threatening storm surges of 18-23 feet above normal tide levels. Central Abaco and the nearby cays took the brunt of this storm.
Marsh Harbour, the commercial center of the Abacos, was severely impacted. Over 75% of homes were damaged, the international airport runway was underwater and there was critical flooding throughout streets and beaches. The ripple effects of this devastation could be felt across The Bahamas and abroad. It would be days before the first plane and helicopter could even land on the island. All Hands and Hearts along with other NGO representatives, international reporters and government agencies staged their initial efforts in Nassau.
Our Work and Impact
With immense support from our local and global partners, we were able to arrive early and stay late in The Bahamas. We initially committed to performing continuous work for two years, with an immediate focus on response capacity in some of the hardest-hit areas. Our long-term recovery program targeted reconstruction in schools and addressing the lagging housing crisis.
Once the All Hands and Hearts base was established and the program was opened, it seemed like a current of purple t-shirts began to permeate through the communities of central Abaco. Every school and home needed some type of response work, and that’s where we began. The staff and volunteers would wake at 6:00 am and hit the ground running. Some would work on the back-breaking task of clearing debris out of homes, sanitizing homes from mold, and did the same in school buildings. Each day more and more people’s homes came to be added to our work queue. The team worked like a well-oiled machine, though sometimes brought to tears by seeing what the community had just faced. The team was intentional about moving with great care and consideration in this post-disaster zone.
“It’s always refreshing when you drive around and see people inside their homes cleaning it up and trying to return to their lives as they know it. It’s not easy, but making a start helps a lot. Little by little, piece by piece it is all coming together! Abaco we’re bouncing back baby!!”
– Vandea, community member
OUR DEDICATED VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers representing more than 30 countries came to work in The Bahamas. The bonds of friendship that were forged among them and the community are strong and still reverberate through the island.
AHAH did not limit its impact to the physical structures on which we work. Both staff and volunteers enjoyed connecting with the people whom we serve. In the first weeks of program, the island felt quiet and the once-bustling, lively town of Marsh Harbour felt devoid of any signs of life. So many families had evacuated to neighboring islands or the U.S. and those who stayed were still processing the experience. It was only after over two weeks of being on the island that our teams first interacted with children of the island and there were echoes of excitement as a group of young people cycled past the base.
The idea of organizing a Halloween celebration for the children was brought to fruition and truly set us apart as an NGO working in this space. The community Thanksgiving celebration that followed was another peak moment with 300 members attending. Community members shared that they felt seen and were so grateful for these special moments that they didn’t know how badly they needed them. As a show of appreciation, local fishers provided enough fish for a special meal to feed the entire base.
ADAPTING TO THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought our work in The Bahamas to a halt, but that did not stop us. We had begun working on the largest school in Abaco – The Central Abaco Primary School. As we could no longer be present to work, we used our resources to pay for materials and labor to complete our work. Our roofing program was also in full swing with 28 homes in this work queue. The news was devastating to our team who so badly wanted to remain and work in The Bahamas. The homeowners were equally devastated as hurricane season was fast approaching and their homes were not secured. The decision was made to get these folks into their homes by hiring vetted, local contractors. The progress was supervised remotely by our technical team via photos and video calls, and we got it done!
The DM-12 model was created in response to the pandemic. The Bahamas was the first DM12 program and employed a cohort system in which volunteers committed to being on program for three months. The program was split into bubbles, restricting interactions and vehicles to those that were in each bubble. This was implemented to prevent the spread of any COVID-19 cases among the team. It provided many lessons learned and we were able to adopt this to all of our programs.
By early 2021, it became clear that we had lost so much time because of the pandemic and so many Abaconians were still not in their homes. We decided to run two programs in The Bahamas! One program was run from our base at ECC in Marsh Harbour, the other from a newly established base in Dundas Town. One program focused on existing response work along with critical home repairs, the other program focused on the building of a kindergarten school – Little Darlings Academy, and major roof repairs. Very few NGOs remained working on the island, so this was an injection of great hope and energy to the community.
EVERY CHILD COUNTS SCHOOL
Every Child Counts holds such a special place for the communities of Abaco. Before this school was established, most children with special needs found themselves hidden away in their homes or placed in traditional schools without the essential support they needed. . Days before the storm, the school had just completed its residential facility that would house older students and visiting volunteers. That building along with every other one on the campus was completely ravaged by the storm. The original building that was the nun’s convent was completely destroyed. The school’s growing population required that this building be rebuilt and we chose to take on this challenge. There were many challenges, but our team’s commitment to overcoming each hurdle and keep pushing was truly remarkable.
COMMUNITY STORY | MR. GARY LEWIS, ECC TEACHER
Mr. Lewis lost his home to Hurricane Dorian and was living in temporary housing for more than two years before we were able to support him. We connected with Gary as he taught at the Every Child Counts School. With that, we got to work supporting with door, window, and interior home repairs and conducting essential parts to his home to restore it and create a safe shelter as it once was.
Mr. Lewis continues teaching at Every Child Counts, making a lasting impact on students with disabilities as they grow into young adults. He radiates warmth and passion even when facing his own adversity, says the staff and volunteers who have had the good fortune to know him. We were honored to be working for such an inspirational person and were delighted to hand over the keys to Mr. Lewis
LITTLE DARLINGS ACADEMY
Little Darlings Academy is a kindergarten school serving families in central Abaco, a region where pre-disaster lacked these facilities.. The building that was previously used was condemned after the storm. They had received no help since the hurricane hit almost two years prior, and there were no plans from the government or other organizations to provide support. The 150 children who previously attended Little Darlings would have no place to return if it weren’t for the support of AHAH.
From the time I graduated, teaching has been and will always be my passion. I just love children and want to know that they are cared for and loved. When the children are happy, so am I. The hardest time of my life since I started teaching was from 2019 up to the present. It was not that I didn’t have a job; it was not knowing where my students were and how much I truly missed them. A special thank you to AHAH for being that ray of light and hope for the family of Little Darlings Academy preschool to reunite once again. Thank you
– Miss Bostwick, LDA Principal
AHAH provided a safe, disaster-resilient school where 600+ children, over the next 10 years and beyond, can play and flourish. Seven classrooms were constructed with an individual restroom in each room. Each room was furnished and a playground was constructed where children can safely play. The school’s principal met and prepared meals for every cohort that worked on the school. A scholarship is named in honor of AHAH and will be given each year to a child showing great potential but limited resources.
COMMUNITY STORY | TANNAH NEWBOLD, LDA TEACHER
Newbold shared that she could not say ‘thank you’ enough. As she walked through the school, she went into a minute of thank you’s while her eyes filled with tears and her voice cracked. She offered thanks to all who helped to restore homes, their school and ultimately, their spirits.
Little Darlings is a place of normalcy and refuge for many. Most people are living in unfinished homes, and some are still living in tents. Going to LDA assures, that for some portion of their day, they will be in a space that is clean, organized, beautiful and complete. They are so excited to have a whole new campus with new furniture, books, school supplies and a playground.
“No amount of words can express our gratitude to the people who left their families, their homes and their lives to come and support us. September 1, 2019 was horrible but September 2, 3, 4 …. to this present day is better… because you [All Hand and Hearts] came.
If we have learned anything, it is the value of helping others. We will pay it forward. The people of Abaco, especially the children of Abaco, thank you all!”
– Dominique Russell, DS Ministry of Education in The bahamas
