Women's group helps scavengers

JAKARTA (JP): Mrs. Fahmi Idris, the chairwoman of the organization of civil servants' wives at the Ministry of Manpower, appealed to wealthy people yesterday to help scavengers in Bantar Gebang, an area 30 kilometers of east Jakarta.

"The scavengers' lives depend on used materials they find in heaps of rubbish in the Bantar Gebang garbage dump," she said at a ceremony marking the organization's decision to continue cooperating with the International Labor Organization's (ILO) Jakarta office in a social charity program for scavengers.

"The economic hardships these scavengers are facing are forcing their school-aged children to help their family earn a living," she said, adding that there were about 250 child workers in the area.

Mrs. Fahmi said the civil servants' wives, grouped in the Bintang Pancasila Foundation, would provide various donations, including scholarships for 10 talented children, health and nutrition assistance, regular medical aid and mass circumcision for the scavengers.

ILO has provided between US$30,000 and $35,000 annually for the social charity program since 1993. (rms)