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Remembering Fr. Jorge Anzerona: A life dedicated to housing the poor
March 11, 2025
Jorge has left this world.
I thought he would not go. Much detached from everything, he loved life, not so much for himself but the causes it offered. A winning smile never ever left his face. He had so much to do, and he was doing it with such passion and devotion that he never looked like leaving without completing it. And if the work is housing the poor of Asia, when and how and why would it end?
More than 40 years that I knew him, he was the dearest of friends. Whenever we met, in India, he visited frequently; in Bangkok, during ACHR meetings; in Japan, he had invited me to spend some time with him, we would talk endlessly. He was travelling Asian countries, almost six months a year, spending time studying housing projects for the poor by local NGOs. And his study visits were never a day or two. He would spend a long time understanding the project, analyzing context, listening to people, making notes in his diary with sketches, and would share with many, all over the world, in his journal called Selavip News. He had only admiration and support for what was being done and talked only positives. To him, that was God’s work. He saw only the good.
My mother would enjoy having him for lunch or dinner when in Ahmedabad and occasionally advise him to get married. He would laugh endlessly. He was particularly fond of my daughter, Birwa, who would take away his glasses and run. Sridevi remembers our small excursions.
Fr. Jorge Anzerona was curious. An Argentinean citizen, he became a priest early, taught architecture in Japan, and roamed around Asian countries studying housing projects of the poor. Our most enjoyable and relevant work together was planning and delivering a 17 day long continuous seminar in five Indian cities—Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Delhi—in 1981, titled “ Seminar on Non-conventional and Alternative Approaches to Shelter the Urban Poor—Local and International Experience”. Some 60 government, non-government and academic agencies co-hosted it, and hundreds participated. He was compassionate and had vision of the world without poverty and suffering.
He is one I would count on waiting for me there.
Kirtee
08 03 2025
I thought he would not go. Much detached from everything, he loved life, not so much for himself but the causes it offered. A winning smile never ever left his face. He had so much to do, and he was doing it with such passion and devotion that he never looked like leaving without completing it. And if the work is housing the poor of Asia, when and how and why would it end?
More than 40 years that I knew him, he was the dearest of friends. Whenever we met, in India, he visited frequently; in Bangkok, during ACHR meetings; in Japan, he had invited me to spend some time with him, we would talk endlessly. He was travelling Asian countries, almost six months a year, spending time studying housing projects for the poor by local NGOs. And his study visits were never a day or two. He would spend a long time understanding the project, analyzing context, listening to people, making notes in his diary with sketches, and would share with many, all over the world, in his journal called Selavip News. He had only admiration and support for what was being done and talked only positives. To him, that was God’s work. He saw only the good.
My mother would enjoy having him for lunch or dinner when in Ahmedabad and occasionally advise him to get married. He would laugh endlessly. He was particularly fond of my daughter, Birwa, who would take away his glasses and run. Sridevi remembers our small excursions.
Fr. Jorge Anzerona was curious. An Argentinean citizen, he became a priest early, taught architecture in Japan, and roamed around Asian countries studying housing projects of the poor. Our most enjoyable and relevant work together was planning and delivering a 17 day long continuous seminar in five Indian cities—Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Delhi—in 1981, titled “ Seminar on Non-conventional and Alternative Approaches to Shelter the Urban Poor—Local and International Experience”. Some 60 government, non-government and academic agencies co-hosted it, and hundreds participated. He was compassionate and had vision of the world without poverty and suffering.
He is one I would count on waiting for me there.
Kirtee
08 03 2025
