Wallerfield community activist Marlene Hazel's passion to help

MARLENE Hazel has endured many hardships throughout her life. She grew up in an abusive, poor family, and lost her 14-year-old daughter to gun violence.

But it was these very traumatic experiences that gave her immeasurable empathy as she never wants others to face similar battles. Now, several years later, she is deeply involved in social work and is loved by her community.

Hazel, 52, grew up in what she calls the “farming side” of Wallerfield, and still lives there.

She has always had a passion for sports and culture and helping others, she told WMN during a cellphone interview on November 20.

She is currently the president of the Wallerfield Community Council, Demerara Sports, Youth and Cultural Club, as well as the Jacob Hill Settlement Council.

She has advocated for and helped the community get a recreational ground, activity centre, as well as houses for residents.

Every Christmas, the sports club she leads hosts a caravan in the community where they distribute toys, snacks and hampers to families. The group also hosts an annual football competition.

She also runs an NGO called Hope for the Hopeless, which assists children and adults who are victims of abuse, among other things.

Hazel told WMN she had a difficult childhood.

She attended Cumuto Government School, then Bates Memorial High School, in Sangre Grande. However, she was forced to drop out of school in form three.

“My father was a gambler and he was an alcoholic and while we never necessarily ran out of food, we struggled financially. Simple things like going to school were a struggle. I would go to school when I could afford to.

“Many times, we (my four brothers and I) would eat bake and butter, bake and dasheen bush, dasheen bush and dasheen for every meal.”

In addition to financial challenges, she said she endured physical and sexual abuse from more than one family member.

“And it was that abuse that made me stop school.

“And when you’re abused like that, you start to search for love in all the wrong places.”

She added, “When I tell you poverty is hell, you end up making so many wrong decisions.”

She became pregnant by men she called “hit and run fathers,” who also abused her.

She had a total of eight children.

She recalled someone approaching her on the streets about getting involved in exotic dancing, promising she would be able to earn some money.

And she did.

She became Monica the exotic dancer.

“I travelled the Caribbean doing exotic dancing when I was in my 20s.”

She eventually returned to Trinidad and Tobago while pregnant with her seventh child, not knowing the unfortunate fate she would meet again. This time, involving her daughter Anisha.

“She loved steelpan – it was her passion.

“The night before Independence Day (in 2005), she went to practice. But as it got later, I find I wasn’t hearing anything and she wasn't home. Then my aunt said, ‘Marlene, call (the adults) there now. There was a shooting.’”

She said she could not control her emotions as she continually called the supervisors there and did not get on to them.

“Then someone answered and asked, ‘Is this Marlene?’ I say yes, he said, ‘Come to the hospital. Anisha dead.’

“That’s how I got that news.”

The incident happened at the Simple Sound Pan Theatre in Pinto Yard, Arima.

A gunman passed in a car and began wildly shooting.

Hazel's daughter Anisha Simon, a student of Brazil High School, was shot in the left eye and died.

Five other teenagers and a six-year-old girl also suffered gunshot injuries.

“That shattered me,” Hazel told WMN.

“I was already pregnant and that had its own stress, and I tried to scream and it’s like I couldn’t even scream.”

She said it took a very long time for her to get back on her feet after that.

“I took it one day at a time…

“I went back to school and graduated from the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) with my degree in social work, I started doing community work, I found myself in church…I found strength in my community.

“It's when you go through poverty, the hard things and with the passion that I have; the empathy that I have, I can comfort somebody else. And that is why I got into social work.”

She said she found healing through her field of study and is in “a better place” now.

"I try to motivate people in the community based on my experience and encourage them as well. I don't shun anyone."

She said she especially encourages young people to take school seriously, and if academics do not seem to be for them, she urges them to do a trade.

"It's why I try to get projects for young people in the community.

"I even took in a young man whose family threw him out on the streets. I got him to go to CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).."

She said she mentors young people, and her NGO also hosts a women's conference annually which features motivational speakers.

She hopes to have her personal office in the community up and running by next year so she can better attend to the people.

"I also hope that one day, Hope for the Hopeless can get its own building and house victims of abuse and people who may have been kicked out. I want them to have access to support and counselling, and even job opportunities, and I want to continue my advocacy."

She is also currently advocating for a community centre, improved roads and street signs in her community.

She said most people call her Miss Marlene or president, but some also call her mother.

“Some of them have said they wished I was their mother because of the things that I did.

“You see when you go through so many trials, you don't want to see your children go through it also. I’m here to shelter them.”

She also wrote a book titled A Piece of Me that details the challenges she faced in life and how she overcame them.

“I’m thankful now that I am able to influence people in a good way because when I was an exotic dancer, I got so big in the business that I started to influence young girls (to join). So I had to flip the script and now I am influencing people to do the right thing.”