DORRELL PHILLIP:

 

HEROINE OF FAMILY LIFE

 

Sasha Mohammed

Sunday Guardian

April 23, 2000

Page 25

 

To live through the decades and share friendships with heroes of yesterday, to be an engineer of change and female empowerment in times when they were still unheard of - these are the hallmarks of greatness.

 

But to do this as just another citizen, to smile humbly when praised, to dismiss one's distinguished contributions to the world - these are the hallmarks of the true heroine, which epitomizes Dr. Dorrell Phillip.

 

At 67, this divorced mother of three smilingly defines herself as "a doting grandmother."  Her life's work would, however, label her differently.

 

She has been a teacher, a housewife, a business supervisor and director, a graduate assistant, a field instructor, a Minister's consultant, a University lecturer, a psychologist and "always a social worker."

 

Dorrell Phillip was born in Port of Spain in 1935, and spent her childhood and adolescent years as a student of Tranquillity Girls' primary school and Bishop Anstey's Girls' High School.

 

After graduating from there she entered the teaching profession, and was a primary school teacher at Caparo RC, Petit Valley Boys RC and Belmont Orphanage for four years.

 

"I came from a family of all girls, and we're all teachers at heart."

 

"I had a very insightful mother who really believed women needed to be educated, and as such, I was motivated to do my best," she says.

 

"During those days of teaching in the early '50s, I travelled with Beryl McBurnie and her dance company to Jamaica at a time when dance was considered an aberration from societal traditions.  Beryl did a lot to change that perspective.  Interestingly enough, we never developed a close friendship until years after.  Many may not know Beryl was a very politically thinking woman.  I greatly admired her intelligence," Phillip said in an interview.

 

In 1957, Phillip migrated to Venezuela to get married.  When her husband was accepted at a Colorado University, they moved to the USA.  She was busy raising a family of one daughter and two sons.

 

"I used to work to help maintain the family as well, since we were quite poor in those days.  But I always saw the responsibility of nurturing the children as mine, and I loved doing it."

 

When her last son was five, she decided to go back to work in a bank where she began as a clerk and left as a supervisor.

 

In the late 60s and early 70s, Phillip went back to school, to do chemistry but soon switched to her first love, psychology.

 

Even though those were the years of rampant "radicalism and feminism, I was not involved in that 'hype'.

 

"I never felt I wanted to go to jail for a cause, even though I felt a lot of things needed to be changed.  I am assertive but not aggressive and I've always felt there are two ways to do something.  I always choose my own battles," she said.

 

"I regretted not being in Trinidad to be part of the great changes that were taking place.  I knew Dr. Eric Williams personally, through the Little Carib Theatre and Arts.  He was quite close to Beryl, and I also knew Hugh Wooding and Peter Minshall's parents.  I was always motivated to excel because I knew I was coming home to Trinidad eventually."

 

Her training in the bank allowed her to run a home for emotionally disturbed girls called Short Term Adolescent Remedial Training (START), which gave them a new beginning in life.

 

"Even back then, I knew that for women, knowledge was power.  I also felt, and still do, young people should give back to society so I began a volunteer programme at the University which gave youths a sense of altruism."

 

In 1978, Phillip returned to Trinidad, ad began a private psychology practice "immediately, since I felt I could initiate changes this way.'  It was at this time she was invited by the late Archbishop Anthony Pantin to be a member of the St Dominic's Board.

 

"The late Archbishop was the type of person who seemed destined to serve and inspire the world to greater heights.  I always turned to him for guidance throughout my life," she confessed.

 

During the last two decades, Phillip has been busy in Trinidad.  She was a consultant for the Human Resource Department of several prominent companies and government Ministries including Clico, ADB, ISPAT and the Ministry of Development, Culture and Women's Affairs.

 

She has been a lecturer and Coordinator of Social Work at the University of the West Indies and has studied to the level of PhD.

 

In 1995, she published the work "Social work in the Caribbean", and is currently working on other publications.

 

She currently maintains a private practice, hosts the local television show Talking it out, is President of Soroptomist International, Port of Spain, a board member of the International Association of Schools of Social Work, and a member of National Association of Social Workers.

 

In her free time she enjoys reading, walking, traveling, and "doting on my granddaughter."

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