Community of Sant'Egidio take to streets of cities to offer support for poor
Members of Community Sant'Egidio in Jakarta distribute palm leaves with message of peace attached to it to a trishaw driver in West Jakarta on Palm Sunday. (Photo supplied by Jakarta Community of Sant’Egidio)
By Konradus Epa
Indonesia's Community of Sant'Egidio took the opportunity on Palm Sunday to visit more than 500 marginalized people in Jakarta, and several other cities across the country.
After Palm Sunday Mass, members of the community visited trishaw drivers, garbage collectors, street children and orphanages, and homes for the elderly.
Eveline Winarko, Indonesia's community coordinator, said community members distributed messages of peace and homes written on paper and tied to palm leaves to Christians and Muslims.
"We wanted to use the event to bring peace to poor people, children, and the elderly and let them know they are not forgotten," Winarko said on March 26.
"That is what Jesus did more than two thousand years ago, entering Jerusalem to bring peace to all people," she said.
Winarko said this year held special significance since it helped mark Sant'Egidio's 50th anniversary. The community was established in Rome in 1968.
The Sant'Egidio community, arrived in Indonesia in 1990 and now has 16 chapters across the country and some 600 members.
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