change language
you are in: home - press review newslettercontact uslink

Support the Community

  
September 23 2008

Indonesia’s "Rainbow" Transforms Children’s Lives

 
printable version

JAKARTA (UCAN) -- Dani Windiya, a 13-year-old Muslim from a working-class family, says he is glad he joined a Catholic-initiated interreligious movement because it has helped him "understand the meaning of friendship."
 
Now he knows that friendship means accepting and respecting differences, such as in religion and ethnicity. "This is the reason why I remain a member of the movement," he said when UCA News spoke with him on Sept. 14.
 
The third-year student at Junior High School 140 in Sunter, North Jakarta, recalled that he joined Negeri Pelangi (country of the rainbow) eight years ago after some members told him he could "get to know others without regard for their background."
 
The broad friendships he has developed are "the reason why I remain a member of the movement," he added.
 
Dani said the movement also encourages him to care about people in need, such as "giving a book and a pen to a classmate." In particular he remembers going with other Negeri Pelangi members to visit a home for elderly people and a home for street children during the Christmas season two years ago. "It was the most impressive experience I ever had," the youth said.
 
Dani's father is a construction worker and his mother sells fruit on the street. He is the fifth of the family's six children.
 
The teenager credits Negeri Pelangi with changing his daily habits. "I was a naughty and lazy boy. But now I study diligently and help my parents do the housework," he said. Having learned to be mindful of the environment through the movement, he continued, "now I always throw garbage in trash bins."
 
Another member, Mina Marlina, 12, claimed similar benefits from participating in the movement. "I can accept religious differences although I come from a Muslim family," she said.
 
Like Dani, she acknowledged the movement's influence in encouraging her to study diligently, visit friends and pick up rubbish in her school's compound and neighborhood. Mina is a fifth-grader at state-run Elementary School 010, also in Sunter.
 
Dani and Mina were among 400 Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims and Protestants aged 7-18 who attended Negeri Pelangi's first national gathering on Aug. 31.
 
Country of the Rainbow is a worldwide movement of children and young people that originated in the Community of Sant'Egidio, an international Catholic lay community based in Rome.
 
"You are My Friends" was the theme of the Indonesian national gathering held in the compound of St. Luke the Apostle Elementary School in Sunter.
 
The Sant'Egidio community in Jakarta organized the program, which drew participants from Sant'Egidio communities in Bandung, Jakarta, Semarang and Yogyakarta on Java, the most populous Indonesian island, as well as from Denpasar and Tanjungkarang dioceses on neighboring islands.
 
During the program, the youngsters all wore white clothes and blue hats, and each brought a handkerchief that was white, red, yellow, green or blue. White symbolizes a clean world, red refers to friendship and solidarity, and yellow represents the sun that unites all people. Green depicts the grass where the youngsters play, and blue symbolizes the night, which should not scare them anymore.
 
They sang and danced together, and also watched a 30-minute play about friendship. At the end of the program, they read out the Indonesian version of the movement's charter expressing their desire to change the world and create peace.
 
Eveline Winarko, coordinator of the Jakarta community, told UCA News during the program, "The Negeri Pelangi movement aims to teach children and teenagers to respect differences, develop solidarity, love the earth and promote the spirit of friendship."
 
It started in Indonesia in 1994 and now has 500 members from 15 Sant'Egidio communities across the country.
 
In Jakarta, Winarko said, the movement arranges various activities such as visits to homes for elderly people and for disabled children, and meetings with street children, as well as gatherings for its members.
It also suggests every member save a little money for a foundation for disabled children. Last year the movement sent used clothes to Aceh in western Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami.
 
According to the website of the Sant'Egidio community, the Country of the Rainbow movement has about 10,000 members around the world.


 ALSO READ
• NEWS
October 9 2017
ROME, ITALY

Dialogue among religions and commitment to refugees in the talks with the Foreign Minister of Indonesia at Sant'Egidio

IT | EN | NL | ID
October 5 2017

October 5th, World Teachers' Day 2017: Let everyone go to school... of language, culture, and peace!

IT | EN | ID
September 21 2017

'At the School of Peace' is now in Italian bookshops: a book that gives a voice to thousands of children in the global world.

IT | EN
July 18 2017
BERLIN, GERMANY

Berlin's youth message to Europe: No More Walls

IT | EN | ES | DE | PT | CA | ID
July 13 2017
LILONGWE, MALAWI

Let's fill the gap with the poor: Sant'Egidio in Lilongwe renewes the commitment of the poorest in Malawi

IT | EN | ES | DE | NL | ID
November 16 2016
ADJUMANI, UGANDA

Uganda: big news for the refugee children at the School of Peace in Nyumanzi

IT | EN | ES | DE | PT | ID
all the news
• PRINT
March 13 2018
RP ONLINE

Flucht, Abi, Studium

February 21 2018
Vatican Insider

Sant’Egidio si unisce alla Giornata di digiuno per Congo e Sud Sudan indetta dal Papa

February 7 2018
Il Secolo XIX

Nessuno è troppo piccolo per aiutare

January 11 2018
La Repubblica - Ed. Napoli

Ragazzi violenti servono nuovi modelli

December 27 2017
Corriere.it

Il mondo dei piccoli alla Scuola della Pace

December 17 2017
Il Sole 24 ore

Alla Scuola della Pace

all press releases
• EVENTS
January 23 2018 | ROME, ITALY

Presentazione del libro ''Alla Scuola della Pace. Educare i bambini in un mondo globale''

January 17 2018 | NAPLES, ITALY

Presentazione del libro ''Alla Scuola della Pace - Educare i bambini in un mondo globale''

January 15 2018 | ROME, ITALY

Presentazione del libro ''Alla Scuola della Pace, Educare i bambini in un mondo globale''

ALL MEETINGS OF PRAYER FOR PEACE
• NO DEATH PENALTY
March 9 2015
AFP

Peine de mort en Indonésie: la justice va étudier un appel des deux trafiquants australiens

February 28 2015
Reuters

Australian PM strikes conciliatory note over Indonesia executions

February 21 2015
AGI

Brasile: scontro su esecuzioni, respinto ambasciatore Indonesia

February 21 2015
Reuters

Indonesia recalls envoy to Brazil amid row over execution

February 20 2015
Reuters

Australia ratchets up pressure on Indonesia over executions

January 18 2015
La Repubblica on line

Indonesia, eseguita condanna a morte per sei trafficanti di droga: 5 sono stranieri

October 26 2014

Sant'Egidio with the Pope for the commitment against the death penalty

October 25 2014
MANILA, PHILIPPINES

NO JUSTICE WITHOUT LIFE: Asia for life

October 10 2014
MANILA, PHILIPPINES

1st Asia Pacific Dialogue on human rights and respect for human dignity International Conference: No justice without life

go to no death penalty
• DOCUMENTS

Tanni Taher: the commitment of Sant'Egidio against the death penalty in Indonesia

Appeal "No justice without life" Manila 2014

Il Giappone proporrà l'abolizione della pena di morte

No justice without life 2014,Tokyo - Intervento di Mario Marazziti

No justice without life 2014,Tokyo - Intervento di Alberto Quattrucci

Comunità di Sant'Egidio

La mensa per i poveri di Via Dandolo

all documents

PHOTO

1327 visits

1075 visits

1085 visits

1273 visits
all the related media