About Equality Bahamas

Equality Bahamas is a feminist organization that promotes women’s and LGBTQI+ people’s rights as human rights through advocacy, public education, and community engagement.

Our advocacy is rooted in international human rights standards and undertaken to disrupt unequal power dynamics, destroy systems of oppression, build democracy, and challenge the government to meet its obligations.

Our public education focuses on the creation and dissemination of information in accessible formats, connecting technical subject matter with the lives and experiences of

Our community engagement recognizes the expertise of community members and avoids the speaker-audience dynamic, creating spaces for knowledge-sharing, idea-generation, and solution-building through facilitated conversations.

Our regular programming includes Women’s Wednesdays, a monthly event series bringing women together to discuss issues of personal, national, regional, and global concern, from personal finance and mental health to human rights mechanisms and global solidarity.

Our work is year-round at the national level, and we participate in international campaigns to connect national issues with international issues. We host the annual International Women’s Day March and Expo and a series of events during the Global 16 Days Campaign.

Our Story Our Team Campaigns

Our Story

Equality Bahamas was started in 2014, under a different name, in response to a non-joke by a Member of Parliament about domestic violence. It worked with other organizations to coordinate a response which included a protest in Rawson Square, a petition, and recommendations to the government to address the issue of domestic violence, rooted in a national education campaign.

Only weeks after the non-joke, the Prime Minister announced a gender equality constitutional referendum on the issues of gender inequality in nationality law and sex-based discrimination. Equality Bahamas recognized the referendum as both necessary and ill-timed given the lack of understanding of the issues. It was the only nongovernmental organization to run an educational campaign on the referendum and the four constitutional amendment bills. This work continued until the referendum was held in June 2016, and Equality Bahamas shifted to post-referendum analysis and preparation and advocacy for another referendum.

In 2018, Equality Bahamas launched the #Strike5ive campaign to criminalize marital rape. It prepared and submitted a shadow report for consideration during the sixth periodic review of The Bahamas with regard to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It participated in the review in Geneva with the delivery of an oral statement and in-person advocacy with CEDAW Committee members.

Its participation contributed to the CEDAW Concluding Observations which included recommendations on the draft gender-based violence bill, the Strategic Plan to Address Gender-Based Violence, marital rape, abortion, mammograms and cancer treatment, particularly for Family Island women, and women’s political participation.

Immediately following the devastation of Hurricane Dorian in September 2019, Equality Bahamas partnered with Lend a Hand Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to open a donation center, accepting nonperishable food, hygiene products, and cleaning supplies among other items. The donation center quickly became a hurricane relief distribution center, providing weekly packages to more than 200 families per week in addition to everyday necessities and special requests such as school uniforms on a daily basis. It has since integrated climate justice into its gender justice work.

Equality Bahamas is the leading voice on human rights and gender justice in The Bahamas. It continues to work to end gender-based violence, including interpersonal and structural violence. It leverages and promotes international mechanisms including CEDAW, Universal Periodic Review, and the Belém do Pará. It creates spaces to channel rage, harness the power of imagination, and co-create feminist futures.

Our Team

Alicia Wallace

Co-Director

Alicia is a queer Black feminist, gender specialist, and writer. Fueled by rage, she founded Equality Bahamas in 2014 to contribute to the eradication of gender-based violence. She is passionate about social justice and intersectional approaches and has committed herself to perpetual learning and practice. Alicia has worked on various projects, at the national, regional, and global levels, on youth engagement, climate justice, coordinate care models, national adaptation planning, and post-legislative scrutiny. She encourages people to imagine just and equitable futures and revels in the co-creation process. She enjoys ocean dips, (solo) travel, reading, listening to podcasts, and eating dessert first.

Lauren Glinton

Co-Director

Lauren joined the Equality Bahamas (EB) team in July 2020 after attending a virtual Women‘s Wednesday. Since then, she has facilitated several Bystander Intervention trainings, helped execute EB’s 16 Days of Activism and IWD campaigns, and participated in consultations on the organization‘s behalf. She holds a BA in Psychology and Hispanic Studies from Vassar College, and an MA in Sociology from the University of Toronto. A native of Nassau, Bahamas, Lauren currently resides in Toronto, Canada where she works in Media & Advertising. Lauren’s first love was swimming, and one of her proudest accomplishments to date was representing The Bahamas at the 2007 and 2009 CARIFTA Swimming Championships.

Kadesha Treco

Board Member

Kadesha (she/her) is a third-year Public Policy Ph.D. student at the University of Arkansas. Born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, she migrated to the U.S. after becoming a wheelchair user in 2012. Presently, she is a Graduate Research Assistant with a concentration in Social Justice, and a Disability Studies researcher. Kadesha is passionate about using public-facing methods such as digital storytelling and podcasting to effect policy change. Her qualitative work centres on the experience of people with disabilities and access to institutions. Some of her favourite hobbies are wheelchair basketball, adaptive mountain biking, swimming, and sleeping.

Jessica Russell

Board Member

Jessica is a therapist, wife, mother, feminist, and ally. She provides talk therapy for individuals, couples, and families, at Family Wellness Centre in Grand Bahama. Her main areas of focus are anxiety, depression, grief, relationship issues, and trauma. She holds a Masters Degree in Psychology, a certification in Domestic and Sexual Violence, and a passion for human rights and gender equality. After working with Equality Bahamas since 2020 at various events, she officially joined the Board in 2023. Ever conscious of the injustices in the real world, she enjoys films and tv shows where the villain receives an appropriate fate.

Nia Bethel Sears

Board Member

Nia‘s journey with Equality Bahamas began in 2017. She always had a keen interest in social justice issues. Therefore, joining the EB team was a great fit to channel her desire to make a tangible difference. Over the years, Nia has assisted with strategizing and executing many projects/events such as 16 Days of Activism, International Women’s Day, Women’s Wednesdays, and Hurricane Dorian relief efforts.

She is a lawyer and holds degrees from the University of Toronto, University of Sussex and City, University of London. In her spare time, she enjoys performance/visual arts and being active outdoors.

Allicia Rolle

Board Member

Allicia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies from Florida International University (FIU). She has worked at the Department of Gender and Family Affairs in the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development and at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Unit in The Office of the Prime Minister where her scope expanded. Allicia has volunteered with Equality Bahamas since 2017. In her free time, she enjoys time at the beach, reading, writing, art and exploring expression through fashion.

Bianca Wagner

Board Member

Bianca Wagner started volunteering with Equality Bahamas in 2017. She has helped organize our Women’s Wednesdays events and International Women’s Day March and Expo.
Bianca first developed a passion for gender studies and women’s rights initiatives while completing her BA degree in Arts and Sciences at Quest University Canada. In 2019, Bianca continued volunteering with Equality Bahamas remotely while completing her MA degree in Teaching. Bianca moved back to Nassau in 2021 and currently teaches primary school at Lyford Cay International School.

Francise Dillet

Board Member

Francise Dillet was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas. She received a BSc in Accounting at Northeastern University in Boston, certified via Georgia and had been a practicing accountant in the Bahamas since 1986.
From early adulthood Fran recognized the disparity of the sexes and was compelled to join the fight against these discriminations. She is a feminist, gender equality activist and human rights advocate, and via great organizations such as DAWN, CaFRA and Equality Bahamas she has had the opportunity to contribute and make a difference over the years. She has been actively involved in this endeavor for the past thirty years and remains passionate about gender equality and equal human rights for all.
She is the mother of four and is married to Larry Wilson, CA.

About Equality Bahamas

Our Story

Our Team

Alicia Wallace

Lauren Glinton

Kadesha Treco

Jessica Russell

Nia Bethel Sears

Allicia Rolle

Bianca Wagner

Francise Dillet

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