Help starving inmates!

Help starving inmates!

Panti Sosial Bina Laras 3 is an institution for mentally ill
people scooped up from the streets of Jakarta. The government
funding it receives amounts to Rp 1,400 (10 cents U.S.) per day
per inmate. It was previously supported mostly by ethnic Chinese
people. Last month, 220 inmates received enough rice for 10 days
only, enough eggs for half an egg each for the month and no
vegetables, fruit, tofu or meat of any kind. They are without
exception covered with scabies.

A small group of expatriate volunteers are trying to help with
food, some medicines and some money, but it is a drop in the
ocean. The people are painfully thin, almost all of them look
like concentration camp victims.

It was recently reported that due to an interview which
appeared on Australian television, the starving animals at Taman
Safari are being shipped sixteen tons of meat, with donations
pouring in to help them in the future. The people of Panti Laras
3 are also caged and starving and they are human beings.

CHRISTINE BURNS

Jakarta