Tolerance of others and a love of diversity were some of the lessons children learned at a special festival of games held in Jakarta on Sunday.

Basketball, coloring, fishing, football, and snakes and ladders were among various games offered by the Community of Sant’Egidio at the festival entitled “Country of the Rainbow.”

Nearly 500 children of all ages attended the event at the Desa Putra Orphanage in Lenteng Agung. They came from several groups managed by the community – a charitable and evangelical Church lay association — such as the “School of Peace.”

The School of Peace offers a family-like environment to support young people in their scholastic efforts. It also helps families with child-raising tasks and proposes an educational model that promotes solidarity with the less fortunate and enables children to overcome social barriers and discrimination.

“In this festival, we offered the games to encourage everyone to develop tolerance and recognize the differences among them,” Eveline Winarko, coordinator of the Sant’Egidio community in Indonesia, said.

Good values such as a love of peace, unity and diversity as well as tolerance should be instilled in their minds, she said.

“This is in line with the goals of the Country of the Rainbow movement,” she added.

Games were chosen as a way of developing tolerance since they involve a great deal of interaction which helps highlight differences among them, she continued.