GraceKennedy Birthright Programme Lauded for Strengthening Diaspora Ties
By: , July 27, 2025
Photo: Mark Bell
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith(third right), Chair of the GraceKennedy Foundation, Caroline Mahfood (third left), and GraceKennedy Limited Chief Executive Officer, Frank James (background), share a photo opportunity with participants in the 2025 GraceKennedy Jamaican Birthright Programme. The interns are (from left): Josiah Royes, Kyrah McIntosh, Lauren Roach, and Abigail Ralph. The occasion was the closing ceremony held on Friday (July 25) at the company’s corporate office in downtown Kingston.
Photo: Mark Bell
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith (right), converses with two participants in the 2025 renewal of the GraceKennedy Jamaican Birthright Programme—Kyrah McIntosh (left) and Josiah Royes—during Friday’s (July 25) closing ceremony at the entity’s corporate office downtown Kingston.The Full Story
The GraceKennedy Jamaican Birthright Programme has been praised for the significant opportunities it affords to participants drawn from the Diaspora.
The programme is a five-week cultural and professional internship hosted in Jamaica, designed for second- and third-generation Jamaican university students from the United States (U.S.), Canada, and the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Participants gain hands-on experience at GraceKennedy subsidiaries aligned with their field of study, while also engaging in activities such as heritage tours and mentorship sessions.
Speaking during the closing ceremony for the 2025 renewal at GraceKennedy’s corporate office in downtown Kingston on Friday (July 25), Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, commended the initiative for providing enriching and culturally immersive experiences to the participants.
“Across generations and across leaderships, it has remained a critical pillar. For that, we celebrate, given its unquestioned strengthening of affinity between our Jamaican community, particularly… second- and third-generation Jamaicans, and Jamaica,” Minister Johnson Smith said.
She emphasised that meaningful engagement with Jamaicans overseas remains a cornerstone of the Government’s foreign policy.
“Our Diaspora—including our young people like our Birthright interns—possesses so much knowledge, skills, perspective, passion, drive, and other quintessential ingredients that make us so special as a people. That is why it is so important for the Government of Jamaica to continue to pursue avenues for meaningful engagement and opportunities for collaboration and mutuality with our Jamaican community overseas,” the Minister said.
Four students were selected to participate in the 2025 Jamaican Birthright Programme, which commenced on June 23.
Two hailed from the United States (US), one from Canada, and one from the United Kingdom (UK).
The closing ceremony celebrated their cultural and professional immersion, highlighting the programme’s role in deepening connections between Jamaica and its Diaspora.