Donation for labor programs

JAKARTA (JP): The municipality will start a campaign to advertise a special philanthropic fund called Dompet PHK (Wallet PHK) to raise money for its employment programs, Governor Sutiyoso said yesterday.

Sutiyoso said the funds raised in the campaign would help the city cope with the unemployment crisis which has become increasingly worse in Jakarta over the last four months due to the country's economic woes.

A Rp 22 million (US$2,750) donation from the Golkar faction would be among the first donations to the employment fund, he said.

The money raised will be used to finance the employment of blue collar workers in the city's development projects.

These projects include the clean river project and the greening campaign.

"Hopefully we can raise more money from businesspeople and other interested parties," Sutiyoso said Sunday.

He said that despite a Rp 5 billion allocation from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) -- which is used to pay workers -- the municipality still needed more money to continue the programs.

"I hope to start the donation campaign soon, maybe within the next two weeks," he added. (edt)