Service award for Mustard Seed Communities

JAMAICA

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) announced that Mustard Seed Communities (MSC) will be honoured with the Excellence in Humanitarian Service Award at its 2025 Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Sunday, July 20 at the National Arena, under the theme Building Future Leaders, Breaking Barriers.

The award recognises Mustard Seed Communities for its “unwavering commitment to caring for society’s most vulnerable,” stated the UCC’s website ucc.edu.jm

Founded in 1978 by Trinidad-born Msgr Gregory Ramkissoon, MSC has grown from a single home for abandoned children with disabilities in Kingston to “a globally respected network of care centres” that provide shelter, healthcare, education, and spiritual guidance to hundreds of children and adults across Jamaica and internationally.

Reflecting on the honour, Trinidad-born Fr Garvin Augustine, Executive Director of MSC International, said, “An award from the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean is a tremendous honour for Mustard Seed Communities. It indicates that the values of respect, dignity and compassion which we strive to promote through service to the vulnerable population for whom we care, are validated and echoed by an esteemed institution of higher learning as UCC.”

Fr Augustine also noted the organisation’s long-standing impact: “MSC’s various achievements over the years stem from our unwavering commitment to the care and well-being of society’s vulnerable, particularly children with physical or intellectual challenges, ensuring that no child is ever abandoned twice. This is demonstrated by our growth and expansion within Jamaica over the last 47 years and has extended beyond our shores to communities in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, and Malawi”.

The 2024 Excellence in Humanitarian Service Award was awarded to the NCB Foundation, known for its investment of over JMD$2 billion in education, community development, and youth empowerment.

MSC now joins this lineage of organisations whose work reflects the core of UCC’s mission—fostering leadership, innovation, and service.

This year’s commencement will be a historic occasion as it also features the installation of UCC’s new Chancellor, Professor John MacIntyre, a global expert in artificial intelligence and academic leadership, and the installation of new Pro-Chancellor, Professor Emeritus Anthony Clayton PhD, an esteemed scholar known for his work in policy innovation and sustainable development.

More than 6,500 guests are expected to witness the conferral of degrees on over 800 graduands at the upcoming UCC commencement.

“Humanitarianism, like innovation or scholarship, is a discipline of excellence,” said Professor Colin Gyles, President of UCC. “At UCC, we recognise that greatness is not just about what one achieves, but who they uplift in the process. Mustard Seed Communities embodies this ethos and serves as an example to our graduates of leadership that builds not only careers, but communities.”

He continued, “Mustard Seed exemplifies what it means to serve with compassion, courage, and continuity. Their legacy of love, inclusivity, and empowerment echoes UCC’s values of service, leadership, and community development. In a world that too often overlooks those in need; they have built a mission around making the unseen, seen. This is why UCC confers its highest humanitarian honour on this remarkable institution,” Gyles said.

With 12 residential homes across the island, including the Dare to Care programme for children with HIV/AIDS, Mary’s Child for teen mothers, Jacob’s Ladder for adults with disabilities, and Little Angels Learning Centres, MSC not only delivers direct care, “but also drives sustainable solutions such as agriculture training, skills development, and spiritual outreach. Its impact stories—like that of Bryan, a young man with disabilities who now works as a receptionist at Jacob’s Ladder—are a testament to its transformative model,” said a report by the UCC.