HEIDE PARREÑO
A Filipino nurse with a vision for a multicultural country
By
a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photography, did this short documentary on Heide and her good works.
MARCH 9TH, 2015
Complete article at https://avanell.exposure.co/heide-parreño
They sometimes call her the flower lady, after the signature fake tropical flowers which she always has in her hair. Her voice is quiet, with a distinctive Filipino accent even after living here in the States for 54 years. She listens with the care and discernment of a nurse, totally attentive to those she is interacting with, no matter if they’re 3 or 103.
Heide Parreño is an inspiring member of the Rochester community. Originally from the Phillipines, she immigrated to Seattle in 1961 to become a nun and a nurse. As a young woman, she ran away from home to join the order because her parents didn’t want her to become a nun. She later left the order but is still passionate about her faith and is interested in holistic nursing – healing the mind and body. She is around 70 years old but still passionate and active in the community, desiring to help the underserved in her area. Refugees, the elderly and the poor are all people that she helps on a regular basis.
REFUGEE JUSTICE
Heide is especially involved in the advocating for immigrants, refugees and undocumented workers here in the United States. As a member of the board on the Greater Rochester Coalition for Immigrant Justice she is helping to work for rights of immigrants. An immigrant herself, she helped her parents and siblings move from the Philippines to America.
Multiculturalism is a constant in Heide’s work here in Rochester. When she first moved from Seattle to Rochester she started working for a progressive Catholic church doing outreach, evangelisation and multiculturalism. She has tried to engage the refugees in the city to make them feel welcome and to help her city and the United States to become more diverse. She says, “…[The] mutual enriching process its not to make people into a melting pot. The more people can maintain who they are, the more they can contribute to the United States because the United States will be informed about what is happening globally, politically, socially, economically…”
During the summer of 2014 some young blacks committed acts of violence against Nepalese/Bhutanese refugees, committing theft and in once case a refugee was beaten. This created a public outcry and police action. Involved in the world of refugees, Heide was inspired by this to start a group to support refugees and reconcile differences between them and their oppressors. They meet once a month to celebrate their cultural differences and work towards mutual understanding of each other. One of the families involved are Heide’s neighbors.
Refugees from Bhutan via Nepal, Tek and Devi along with their 2 year old son have only been in the United States for 8 months. Heide and her husband Duane met them by chance on a warm summer day when they ran into each other at a nearby park. Since then, Heide and Duane took them to see the Fourth of July celebration and over the winter have been supported and blessed them by bringing warm clothes for the baby, fixing their television and in other ways shown them how to live an American life here in Rochester.
