Jakarta – On a bridge in Karet, Central Jakarta, a middle-aged man sat eating a cracker. He looked tired and drawn, but before long stood up again and continued searching for sellable items of trash.
"The cracker was all the food we had at home, so I thought I would have it for lunch," Mursali said. "It hasn't been too good today. I have barely managed to find anything worthwhile these past few days."
Mursali quit his job as a taxi driver almost a year ago and has been scavenging along the banks of city's rivers ever since.
Across the road sat Rumatin, a plump, tanned woman in her 40s. As she waited for her three children to finish asking passing motorists for money, she sipped cold tea from a plastic bag.
Rumatin said her children had made enough money to buy a bowl of chicken noodles for lunch earlier, for which they paid Rp 4,000 (approximately 50 US cents). "We could only afford one bowl of noodles, but that was enough for me and my children to share," she said.
Mursali and Rumatin are just two of many impoverished Jakartans who are supposed to benefit from events such as Wednesday's Stand Up and Speak Out campaign.
Around the world, millions of people took part in the UN-sponsored campaign, which was held to raise awareness about global poverty and the Millennium Goals, which Indonesia has ratified.
The goals, to be achieved by 2015, include halving the number of people suffering from poverty and hunger in the world, achieving universal primary education, eliminating gender disparities, reducing the child mortality rate by two-thirds, reducing the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters, halting and reversing the incidence of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases and halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water.
In Indonesia, campaigns were held in several big cities. In Jakarta, thousands of people gathered at well-known public places such as Ragunan Zoo, the National Monument (Monas), Ancol and Senayan City mall to voice their willingness to fight poverty. Some participants also made donations to charities around the city.
Ata, a visitor to Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, was unimpressed when he saw event organizers collecting signatures and handing out t-shirts and plastic bracelets at the zoo.
"It's going to be hard to eradicate poverty. I know they mean well, but this just isn't the right place to have this kind of thing," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said visitors to the zoo were generally from low-income families and would not be able to help out the city's poor. He said the event's organizers should have spent their time and money developing assistance programs for the poor.
It has been estimated that approximately 37 million people still live below the poverty line in Indonesia.
Rumatin said her husband made between Rp 30,000 and Rp 40,000 per day as a scavenger, which was barely enough to feed their family of five. She said she was able to add Rp 30,000 per day to her husband's income with the help of her children.
Mursali said he also made around Rp 40,000 per day as a scavenger. He said he often had to skip lunch or dinner on slow days when his wife could not afford to cook. Sometimes they eat at small food stalls and pay the owner back when they can, he added.
Edi, 40, from Palembang, South Sumatra, works as a scavenger in Tanah Abang. The father of five makes on average between Rp 120,000 and Rp 240,000 per day.
He rents a small house in Ciputat, South Jakarta, and is able to provide rice and anchovies for his family three times a day. "My condition might be okay compared to other scavengers, but to be honest, this is not a good way to live," he said.
Edi had not heard about the anti-poverty campaign, but asked if there was anything he could do to get help. "I just want the government to treat us like human beings," he said.