This letter should give you additional information about the Dare to Care Center and their current needs.

Editor's Note:

At least twice a year members of the community visit the center to deliver well needed supplies and spend quality time with the children. If you wouldlike to volunteer some time on this our outreach project, or to donate cash or supplies, please contact our Public Relations Officer Andrea Golding at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call 771-9057. 

Group of residents visit to the Dear To Care Center.

Mustard Seed Communities
Dare to Care
Home for children living with HIV/AIDS
3 Windsor Road, Spanish Town, St Catherine
Phone/Fax (876) 749-3979/907-3435
E-mail This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Mailing Address
P O Box 267
Kingston 10
Jamaica W.I.

Administrator: Donna Reynolds

I. A bit about who we are
Mustard Seed Communities is a catholic, charitable organization that has served abandoned handicap children and pregnant teenage mothers for over 25 years. It is, indeed, a very well established and recognized entity in Jamaica. Our HIV/AIDS children’s home Dare to Care, is just over three years old and cares for 23 children, who have been abandoned by their families or orphaned by parents who have died from AIDS.

In Dare to Care’s short existence, we have been caring for 30 children, ages range from 1 – 13 years. Of the thirty children seven (7) have died. With the aim of obtaining a better understanding of this fatal disease so as to provide worthwhile and sufficient care for our children, we have worked as closely as possible with the relevant state bodies that have been made available to us in our country.

All of our children have tested positive for HIV. Most of our cases reveal either one or both of the birth parents carrying the disease, should we be fortunate enough to have such records. Where there are no records on file, the child is tested and our home is contacted, usually by the state, when the case is one of abandonment.

II. A few points about AIDS in Jamaica
Generally, like most other Third World countries, AIDS transmission is one the rise, which speaks to an extremely low awareness and lack of public education. The Ministry of Health recently launched a website (www.nacjamaica.com), through a newly established facet of that Ministry that has been charged with undertaking efforts to promote AIDS awareness. The majority of our working class population is online only while at the work place while those who comprise the lower socio-economic franchise do not even know how to use a computers.
In that light, our aim is to keep our children alive, make room for more and to continue to assist in saving lives. This naturally, by course of progression, will provide the pubic with seminal information regarding the disease.

In addition to the supply of Anti-retroviral drugs to prolong the lives of the children, the medical condition of the children has to be monitored once they are placed on the drugs. It is required that a CD4/CD8 test be done twice yearly at a cost of $J6000 per child. This is an alternative or an addition to a viral load test that cost US$252 plus J$1800. To date, we have not been able to do any viral load testing because of the tremendous cost involved. However, we have been fortunate to get sponsorship from generous individuals for CD4/CD8 testing and so we have a fairly good idea of the medical condition of our children. Unfortunately, most of the children’s condition has deteriorated over time and if they are not placed on drugs in the very near future, it would only be a matter of time before we lose our children to AIDS. Providing anti-retroviral drugs for our children is our greatest challenge and in this regard we need all the help that we can get.