AFRAS is pleased to work with the USCG Auxiliary, the USCG, the International Lifeboat Federation (ILF) and various Caribbean volunteer search and rescue services on an initiative designed to encourage many of the small island nations in the Caribbean to develop volunteer search and rescue services or to assist existing rescue services there. In December, 2002 the USCG Auxiliary hosted a conference in Miami attended by representatives of 22 nations, 19 of which were from the Caribbean . Many of the nations represented do not have a volunteer rescue service yet and were represented by their coast guard, marine police of navy. There were excellent presentations on how to set up a volunteer rescue organization, developing initial operational capabilities, sources of funding and interaction with local law enforcement and other government bodies.

A follow-on conference is planned is planned for May, 2004 and much work has been put into helping some of the attendees at the Miami conference get started. AFRAS considers the Caribbean one of the major areas of its funding efforts and has already purchased alphanumeric pagers for members of the CITRO ( Curacao ) volunteer rescue service.