Kendra Phillips has led an exciting life as a career United States Foreign Service Officer.
Currently health team leader for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Barbados/ Eastern Caribbean operation, she also served in South Africa as director of USAID’s Southern African regional HIV/AIDS Programme.
That was an “absolutely fascinating but very, very intense and exhausting” job done over four years, she admitted.
She next moved to India as deputy director, USAID’s Office of Health, 2007-2010.
There she provided strategic leadership and management of a portfolio including maternal and child health, urban health, reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and health systems strengthening.
The Chicago native’s passion for working overseas was ignited while she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, working in rural areas, helping farmers build fish ponds and raise fish, back in 1985.
At that time she was also assisting at the health clinic in the town where she was living and working in the area of HIV/AIDS.
This allowed her to expand on what she had been doing as a paediatric nurse in Chicago before joining the foreign service.
“I joined USAID?to follow my passion of living and working overseas in public health,” Phillips said.
It was only her second day at work at USAID the morning of September 11, 2001, when, sitting with other staff in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, she witnessed the first plane crash into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense), and the thick smoke billowing from that building.
It was a “rocky start” to her foreign service career.
Phillips talks about “amazing experiences” working with HIV/AIDS in her different postings. She reflects on an early experience joining others to take care of their American friend in Africa who was HIV-positive.
“The experience was really rich because actually having to take care of someone who was positive and all the stigma and the dynamics and the challenges of linking them to care was helpful for the decisions that I then supported in our own programmes, because it was a real life experience,” she said.
She went on to have extensive exposure to the problems associated with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
“I have tons of stories of home visits, of community groups that mobilised to take care of people and orphan care centres,” she pointed out.
“What you often hear a lot about when people talk about HIV in southern Africa is the destitution and the seriousness of the issue and the challenges. But there are so many wonderful things that are going on as well.”
The South African experience also brought her face to face with the harsh reality of apartheid.“
Something that was hard for me is that people assumed when they saw me that I was Afrikaans and because of the history of apartheid there, sometimes that would be held against me because of my skin colour and because I look very Afrikaan.”
Her memories of the “very beautiful country” are perpetuated in her pet dogs Spunky and Bindi.
Spunky was forced upon her by a friend in South Africa as a birthday surprise. Bindi was adopted in an emaciated state from a shelter in South Africa.
The two dogs have become her constant companions wherever she has gone. They are clearly an important part of her St James household.
In India, Phillips’ focus was more on management and technical oversight across all the USAID health programmes. Yet it was an “enriching” experience.
She talks about the “fascinating country”, exclaiming: “Everything about that country is an assault on your senses – the colours, the vibrancy, diverse music, clothes, religion, festivals, ancient temples, diverse eco-systems – it is a country of contrasts.”
There she enjoyed the hospitality of Indian friends who welcomed her into their homes.She travelled extensively around the vast country “to see the different parts”. It was an escape from the heavy traffic and life in New Delhi, where she lived.
Phillips considers her posting to Barbados a “nice” change from the USAID?headquarter offices back in Washington, where she had briefly returned, and an interesting transition from India.
She said: “I think of India and I think of the pollution, 1.1 billion people, just constant health issues, water and sanitation issues, malaria, dengue, you name it.
“And then [there’s] Barbados – you walk outside and you have beautiful fresh air. [It’s] a small country, a beautiful country.
“But that’s one of the beautiful things about being in the foreign service. You get thrown into different experiences and you find a way to adapt and be flexible and look for the beautiful and flexible things of every culture.”
