NASSAU, The Bahamas --- Officials from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United States of America recently signed a five-year PEPFAR agreement that will pave the way for 12 Caribbean countries – including The Bahamas - to expand their HIV/AIDS programmes.

The PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Programme was launched in 2003 by then United States President George W. Bush as a five-year (2003-2008) commitment of $15 billion to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

It was renewed, revised and expanded in July 2008 in a move that more than tripled the initial $15 billion to $45 billion through the years 2009- 2013 to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis outside of the United States of America.

PEPFAR has been called “the largest health initiative ever initiated by one country to address HIV/AIDS.”

Under the agreement signed between CARICOM and PEPFAR, the 12 CARICOM countries will share $25 million annually, or up to $125 million over the next five years, to assist with prevention, testing, strategic information and counseling efforts.

Other regional beneficiaries are: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic were the lone beneficiaries of the grant in the initial stages.

Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Hubert A. Minnis said the monies will be used to ensure the continued education and awareness, monitoring and evaluation and surveillance of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, in addition to continuing to remove the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS.

“What this will do is to ensure that all the necessary monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place so that it will be standardised throughout the Caribbean,” Dr. Minnis said.

Dr. Minnis said The Bahamas has had a very successful HIV/AIDS Programme and has met several of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established by the 193 Member-States of the United Nations.

“One such goal was to ensure that by 2010, those individuals with HIV would have medication free of charge, which has been accomplished in The Bahamas,” Dr. Minnis said.

“Additionally, by the year 2015, we expect to see a decline in the new cases of HIV/AIDS as a result of a comprehensive programme that includes education and awareness, ensuring that medications are available; that pregnant women are tested for HIV/AIDS and once those results are positive, they receive medication at the appropriate time so that the illness will not be transmitted to ‘In utero’, which means the infants are born HIV-free,” Dr. Minnis added.

SNUG CORNER, Acklins, The Bahamas – Snug Corner Primary School students recite a poem, during the E. Clement National Arts Festival Adjudications held recently in the Acklins settlement.  (BIS Photo / Eric Rose)

Private and church affiliated schools throughout the Bahamas have warned that the government cut in subsidies announced in the House of Assembly yesterday may force them to raise tuition fees.

With subsidies slashed by 20 per cent, the Anglican Central Education Authority say that in their diocese alone they will lose more than $355,000, while the Catholic Church Board pegs their loss at $578,000.

Having already raised tuition fees by 12 to 14 per cent in the majority of their schools and 30 per cent at Aquinas earlier this year, the Director of Catholic Education, Claudette Rolle, said they cannot go back to parents seeking an additional 50 per cent increase as they would not have any children in their schools come September.

"Right now we have a board meeting this evening (Wednesday night) to discuss it. After that board meeting we will have to come up with some strategies. It may result in a freeze in salary. It may result in us reducing staff; and we'll have to find some other ingenious ways of scaling back other operational costs to make up for the shortfall."

As it stands now, however, Ms Rolle said the Catholic Board has found themselves caught between "a rock and a hard place".

"We are finding ourselves like the other schools in a very difficult place. We have had pretty low fees for the past three years and our policy was to raise our fees every three years so the fees we currently have were the same ones from 2007, so this puts us in a predicament.

"If we were to go beyond the 12 to 14 per cent that most people are able to pay we know there would be an attrition from our schools," she said.

Archdeacon James Palacious said the Anglican Central Education Authority (ACA) also will be meeting to determine how they will proceed.

Archdeacon Palacious said that by the end of June the ACA should be in a position to state what impact the budget cuts would have on their schools, and whether or not they would have to look to parents for additional money or if there are other programs they have that can be cut back on. In the meantime, however, he said the diocese would not be able to comment any further.

As the majority of these schools already function at a deficit, parents have already expressed their fears that tuition fees will have to increase to cover the shortfall.

Already feeling strained to meet her current expenses, one mother told The Tribune that she fears she would have no other choice but to remove her daughter from a private school and place her in the government system.

Click here to read more in The Tribune

Bahama Baseball Park will be the scene of a competitive bonanza when close to 40 teams converge on the location to battle for national honors early next month.

The Bahamas Baseball Federation has disclosed that 37 teams are registered to compete during the national championships, in six age brackets. Indeed, the eighth Annual Andre Rodgers National Baseball Championship is shaping up to be all that's expected.

Showcased will be locally-based players from all over The Bahamas and collegiate players.

In town also will be a group of scouts from a number of colleges and high schools in the United States. A continually growing number of Bahamians are being afforded scholarship opportunities through the BBF.

The championship, scheduled to being on June 4 is great enticement for scouts from American programs.

One of the Bahamians who is testimony to the interest of America institutions in our players, is Etienne Farquharson. He is a sophomore catcher with North Carolina Central University and is favored to be one of the shining stars of the championship.

Farquharson will be with the Inagua delegation. To give an indication of what to expect from Farquharson and other collegiate-based players during the championship, let's focus a bit on a recent weekend stretch the receiver had for North Carolina Central.

In a four-game run, he had 14 official plate appearances and hit safely on 14 occasions for a whopping .714 average. Among his hits were two doubles, he drove in four runs and scored seven times.

Our college players will be considered the cream of the crop going into the opening game of the baseball extravaganza but as is usually the case there will be some stars of the championship emerging from the number of local players. For sure, the locals will not want to be upstaged. Every year, there are some pleasant surprises.

One year, Spanish Wells rocked the system by securing a championship.

Already, the attention that has been given to the foreign-based Bahamian players is agitating quite a few folks. One coach has served notice. Local though many of the players might be, it is anticipated that they will rise to the grand occasion.

Click here to read more in The Nassau Guardian