Temporary Program Suspension

HEALTH AND SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT – COVID 19

We have suspended operations for at least two months at locations around the world in response to the global threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This proactive measure is intended to minimize the risk COVID-19 poses to the communities we serve, our volunteers and staff; the health and safety of our All Hands and Hearts’ community is our foremost priority. We remain committed to finishing the work we began, once the global situation stabilizes. 

THE BAHAMAS HURRICANE RELIEF

Disaster Profile: The Bahamas Hurricane Dorian

On September 1, 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in The Bahamas with wind speeds in excess of 185mph, lashing The Bahamian islands of Great Abaco (pop. ~17,200) and Grand Bahama (pop. ~51,000). After striking The Bahamas, Dorian’s travelling speed slowed to 1 mph over Grand Bahama, prolonging the island’s exposure to life-threatening storm surges of 18-23 feet above normal tide levels. Dorian is the strongest hurricane on record for The Bahamas and has tied a record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall.

Program Work: Temporary Suspension

The Bahamas Hurricane Relief program is currently on hold. We have suspended all operations, in response to the global COVID-19 situation, to prioritize the health and safety of our staff, volunteers and the communities we serve. 

With immense support from our local and global partners, we’ve  committed to working in the Bahamas for at least two years and will honor this commitment as soon as it is safe enough for us to commence operations. 

OPur primary focus will be on response work in some of the hardest-hit areas. Our long-term recovery program will target reconstruction in schools and critical community infrastructure (e.g. health clinics, libraries, homes, etc)

Our teams have been working tirelessly to get schools back up and running in Marsh Harbour. We have performed work on seven schools, including Every Child counts, St. Francis de Sales and Central Abaco Primary School (the biggest public school on the island). Our work on schools will continue once operations re-commence as there is still a huge need for this scope of work. 

Alongside our work in schools, we also have a queue of more than 120 homes we will be working on. We will largely be working on roofs, mucking and gutting, and mold sanitation; we have expanded our work in homes extensively in the last couple of months and have added other community-based facilities, like a library and clinics, to our queue which we will continue work on in the coming months. 

A special thank you to our long-term partner, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, and generous supporters for helping us reach the $4M match goal. While this is incredible, we have found the scope and scale of the devastation to be even more extreme than first estimated. This leads us to estimate we’ll need a minimum of $7M for the recovery work over the next two years. We appreciate your continued support to assist The Bahamas on the long road to recovery.