Dear YPR’s Family Members and Friends,

 I inform you with a deep sorrow that Sergio Regazzoni has left us forever on Thursday, July 30, 2009, at 23:00 French time.

 For those who do not know Sergio, I would like to reveal a bit the relationship between Sergio, YPR (People’s Shelter Foundation) and myself.

 I knew Sergio’s name at the beginning of the 80s when I was working with Father Mangun on the Code riverbank community development in Yogyakarta. At that time, Sergio was the Asia Desk Officer of CCFD (French Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development) and he offered to me (through Bang Arif Budiman who was informed by Bang Kusni alias Bang Emil) a fellowship for studying in France. That was why I took a French course starting from 1986 in the Indonesian-French Association of Yogyakarta. It was only in 1987, when I studied in IHS (Institute for Housing Studies) Rotterdam, that I dropped in Paris to meet Sergio for the first time in CCFD. I remember well my first impression on him: smart, handsome, neat, kind, jovial, polite and humorous (he was about in the middle of his 40s). This first meeting was followed by correspondences and other meetings in Indonesia or Europe. That was the beginning of the relationship between CCFD and YPR through me personally, thanks to Bang Kusni and Bang Arif. The following year, when I was back home in Indonesia, Sergio came to visit YPR’s centre in Condongcatur, Yogyakarta, a building on stilt like the traditional houses in Southeast Asia, which construction was not yet finished. He was impressed by the building and offered to me a financial support for finishing the construction. Of course, I accepted his offer with pleasure. That was the first financial support from CCFD to YPR. The following support from CCFD to YPR was the fellowship for my study in France, which I received from 1989. In 1995 I had not finished my study, but I got a job of teaching in the University of Le Havre, so that I decided not to receive anymore the fellowship from CCFD while continuing my collaboration with CCFD.

 At the same period, Sergio’s mandate in CCFD came to the end. He was replaced by Lidia Miani. It was also a period of “tiarap” (to lie on stomach, face downward, a save position under fire shooting) for YPR due to the repressive Soeharto’s regime and to the fact that I was in France. In spite of this, the relationship between CCFD and YPR continued. During the transitional period (from Sergio to Lidia), Sergio made a tour of visits to the CCFD’s partners in Asia, including YPR, in order to introduce Lidia. The meeting with YPR took place in the beautiful house on stilt of Pak Eko Prawoto (caretaker of YPR in my absence) with the presence of Father Mangun, the volunteers of Code riverbank community development and the YPR’s team.

 Some years later, after the fall of Soeharto in 1998, YPR got up and started to move, thanks to the initiative of Mbak Endah Rahardjo, and received a funding from CCFD for an income generating project based on soil worm breeding. The following activities have been known by all YPR’s team, mainly the “Participatory Urban Development based on Kampongs” accompanied by the publications of the periodicals Warta Kampung (Kampong News) and Exploring Yogya, the book Menuju Kampung Pemerdekaan (Towards a Kampong of Liberation), The Altruism of Romo Mangun, followed by a participatory action research through the programmes of Kampong Apprenticeship, Kampong’s Libraries, and so on and so forth until now.

 After leaving CCFD, Sergio led Centre Lebret, an international network of individuals and organisations working on social and solidarity issues based on faith and on the approaches proposed by Louis-Joseph Lebret, forerunner theoretician and practitioner of “Human Development”. Thanks to Sergio, I become also a part of this organisation (called later “Development and Civilisation – Lebret-Irfed”) until today. In 2000 Sergio came back to Yogyakarta to participate in a workshop on SPIRITUALITY AND GLOBALISATION initiated by Centre Lebret and hosted by FPUB (Interfaith Forum) Yogyakarta. Sergio stayed for some days with all the participants in the workshop centre of PUSKAT in the northern suburb of Yogyakarta. YPR’s team was active in the event and had a chance to get to know with Sergio more closely. Unpredictably, it was the last trip of Sergio to Indonesia.

 In 2004 Sergio was hospitalised for a septicemia and put into a long artificial coma (more than ten days) for his recovery. Since that time, his health condition was up and down. Some months ago he was known to have a cancer in his kidney. He was hospitalised in a special hospital for cancer in the southern suburb of Paris. I went to visit him. We got together in his room for celebrating the anniversary of Denise (his wife). In addition to Sergio, Denise and myself, there were Lidia, Sally, Nicoletta (one of the two daughters of Sergio and Denise) and a close friend of Sergio’s family. Sergio looked very happy, laughed and joked as usual with full optimism for his recovery. He wished that I came to have a good time in his home in Evry when he would be back home. Of course, I agreed with pleasure since it was our old common wish. Around a week later, I heard that his state was down. I called him by phone and felt his sadness in his voice. Some days later he was taken home for his daily treatment before a surgery could be done. He started also to communicate by e-mail. It was relieving.

 Two days ago, I heard that his state regressed drastically and Lidia asked me to contact Mbak Ita Nadia for asking her on the alternative therapies related to her own experience with a serious cancer. As soon as I received this news, I called Sergio by phone. Firstly, to his fixed phone. Nobody took the phone. I left a message in his answering machine. Secondly, to his hand phone. Nobody either. I could only left a message telling him my moral support and my readiness to visit him in his home.

 After that, I contacted Mbak Ita. Only two days later I got her answer (during the those two days she was in fact travelling in villages where there was no internet connection). She gave me information on the medical doctors who helped her to recover and the alternative therapies she followed. I forwarded the essential elements of the information to Sergio by e-mail with a copy to Centre Lebret and Sally. It was Friday, July 31, 2009, at 17:49 French time. Around an hour later, at 18:35 exactly, I got an e-mail from Sally telling me that Sergio has passed away on Thursday, July 30, 2009, at 23:00 French time. It means that when I sent an e-mail to Sergio, he was not there anymore.

 Outside his relationship with YPR, I think that Sergio is a hidden international figure. He had been active in social and solidarity movements since he was young. He had covered the whole world, especially the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America (including the countries under authoritarian and totalitarian regimes like China, North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam,...) for building and maintaining relationships with local figures of social movements, including the banned and underground ones. His social network was so strong and large so that there is a term known among the friends of Sergio: “Réseau Sergio” (Sergio’s Network). Outside his social network, however, Sergio was almost unknown by the public. The fundamental reason is, in my mind, that Sergio was full of modesty; he did not want to be outstanding, to be famous or to be known by the society. He appeared rarely in front of the public. He mastered diverse languages (Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish,...) and red a lot of books, but he did not write book or article to be published. He shared his ideas, reflections, thoughts and knowledge in personal and informal way to the key persons of social movements. He was at the same time a scout, a friend, a godfather and a mediator of the cadres of social movements and the persecuted figures, a peacemaker in the middle of political conflicts, a “silent worker” who built a social network of key figures from diverse nations and countries without noise.

 Now, our great brother Sergio has left us forever. The closest persons to him left are Denise (his wife), their two daughters (Barbara and Nicoletta) and their two grandchildren (son and daughter of Barbara). The funeral ceremony will take place on Friday, August 7, 2009, at 14:00 French time, in the church Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul, Evry, suburb of Paris.

 Let us pray so that his soul finds a smooth way and a peaceful place in the eternal world. And that his wife, daughters, grandchildren and other closest family members could accept his departure with serenity, sincerity and steadiness.

 With deep condolences and solidarity,

 Paris, Saturday, August 1, 2009, early morning

 Darwis Khudori

 Notes: Bang, Mbak and Pak are Indonesian honorific appellation meaning respectively Brother, Sister and Mister.