Survol Highlights
BUILDING BACK BETTER WORKSHOP IN FREEPORT
On 13th February, Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) called a Contractors Workshop which was attended by 35 contractors working in Freeport and surrounding Grand Bahama, 10 humanitarian agency staff, 5 GBPA building department staff, and the IFRC Shelter Sector coordination team. The GBPA Buildings Manager presented the GBPA Building Back Better (BBB) guidance version 1.0, and the Shelter Sector Technical Coordinator facilitated a 1 hour workshop to discuss the interim BBB messages produced by the sector. The purpose of this was for the Contractors to engage with the material, and identify the BBB suggested measures that would be impactful, and can be undertaken with ease and affordability. The discussion led to some new ideas, broadly validated the partners ranking of the messages, and sparked significant interest in BBB measures.
DISASTER RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY – SMALL HOME REPAIR PROGRAM (SHRP)
Hurricane Dorian devastated parts of Abaco and Grand Bahama in September 2019. The Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA), established in the Bahamas under the Disaster Reconstruction Act 2019, designed The Small Home Repair Program (SHRP) to facilitate the reconstruction and restoration of these areas. The program allows qualifying Bahamian homeowners to use purchase orders to obtain materials and other items related to home restoration.
The criteria for participating in the SHRP is as follows
- Is a citizen of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
- Owns the property.
- Lived at the damaged property on August 31st; confirmed by utility bill or other acceptable verification.
- Did not have insurance for the damage to the property.
- Property must be located on Grand Bahama, Abaco and the associated cays.
- The assistance can be for labour, material or both; based on Ministry of Public Works, or Grand Bahama Port Authority.
- Only Authority approved vendors for materials.
- Tradesmen used for repairs would need to be approved under the program
There are four categories for which purchase orders will be granted. Residents whose homes were assessed with minimal damage will be eligible for $2,500 in purchase orders; those with medium damage will be eligible for $5,000 in purchase orders; those with major damage will be eligible for $7,500 in purchase orders; and those whose homes were destroyed will be eligible for $10,000 in purchase orders. The Authority will initially disburse 50 percent of the purchase orders to qualifying applicants. An inspector will then check and ensure the purchase order was spent on the home. Once that is confirmed the remaining 50 percent would be disbursed. The office was opened in Grand Bahama on February 10th, in Abaco on February 17th, and Nassau on February 24th.
As per February 25th, already 2,589 users were registered through the online platform
Coverage against targets
