Rp 4.5m in three days and still counting

Rahmat, an office boy at a private Jakarta company, was in high spirits collecting coins for Prita Mulyasari, the housewife on trial for defaming Omni International Hospital.

“He asks people for coins to support Prita from the workers in my office. He told me that he understood the pain of being a powerless person like Prita,” said Lia, one of the coordinators of Coins for Prita, in a phone interview Monday.

“I am a mother like Prita and I cannot stand to think of her daughter who needs breast-feeding.”
Coins for Prita is a fund-raising movement organized by sympathetic Internet community members.

Some members volunteered their places as posts to receive coin donations for Prita, who has recently been ordered by the Banten High Court to pay Rp 204 million (US$ 21,633) to compensate the hospital.

Prita is still seeking an appeal from the Supreme Court.

Samsul N.A., another coordinator, said the idea of donating coins for Prita’s cause came from members of a mailing list named Sehat Group.

“The group members, including me, decided donating coins would be a good idea because that way everyone could donate. We began to open the posts on Dec. 5.”

There are eight posts in Greater Jakarta and one post in Bandung. Samsul said five more posts would be opened in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Cirebon, Surabaya, and Medan. More information regarding the posts’ locations and point persons is available at www.koinkeadilan.com.

The posts’ coordinators said at least Rp 4.5 million had been gathered within two days.

“And many boxes in the posts have not been opened,” said Enda Nasution, the administrator for Facebook cause “Dukungan Bagi Ibu Prita” (Support for Prita).

Lia said the coordinators were discussing the coins’ management.

“We have not set a deadline for the fund-raising and are still confused how to transport the coins from cities outside Jakarta.”

Several media reported that the movement had become a grass roots fund-raiser with scavengers, students, housewives, expatriates and celebrities among the donors. Some donors had even donated coins along with their piggy banks.

Kompas.com reported Mundala, a trash picker, handed Rp 200,000 in coins collected from 100 scavengers in Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta.

“We want to support a just cause,” Mundala said.