Christmas in Indonesia: charity for orphans and the poor

by Mathias Hariyadi

Professional cooks and homemakers cooked for hundreds of children from Jakarta’s St Vincent orphanage. The bishop ordered a moment of meditation for the birth of Christ to precede the meal. In Kalimantan, Christians organised a Christmas trees competition with discarded material.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Christmas celebrations in Indonesia are an opportunity for charities to help the downtrodden. Christmas meals were prepared for the less fortunate in various parts of the country.

Associations like the Jakarta-based Love Humanity Devotional Group (Kelompok Bakti Kasih Kemanusiaan, KBKK), the Association of Catholic Women (Wanita Katolik Republik Indonesia, WKRI) and the Sant'Egidio Community used their connections to raise funds for the event.

Helena Yap, a parishioner at St Vincentius in Kramar, central Jakarta, said that the WKRI worked for months to prepare lunch for the hundreds of children at a local Franciscan-run parish orphanage. She and scores of homemakers and professional cooks prepared the food for 25 December.

The KBKK, which includes doctors and other professionals, organised a meal at the Wacana Bhakti the minor seminary in Pejaten, a district south of Jakarta. "Many volunteers and donors worked on this charity event,” said Dr Irene Setiadi, head of the association.

At the express request of the bishops, all the activities took place after the second Mass of Christmas. Churchgoers spent the days and hours before 25 December in meditation and preparation for the birth of Christ.

The Church also organised charity events in Kalimantan province, Borneo. Clergymen and churchgoers in Saint Geronimo Parish, in Tanjung Hulu, a district in the provincial capital of Pontianak, used discarded materials for a Christmas tree competition against waste and poverty.

This way, the whole community had fun creating the most beautiful decorations possible with old bottles and cans.