Netizens pour in donations to teary Indonesian food stall owner who got raided

Generous Donations have flooded in from netizens sympathetic to the plight of a small food stall owner in Indonesia, who was broadcast on national TV in tears as government officials raided her premises.

Identified as Saeni, the 53-year-old was raided for selling food during the Ramadan fasting month, which is forbidden in her town of Serang in the Banten province.

Last Friday, Serang's police swooped in and took away the food that she had prepared while she watched helplessly.

Saeni told reporters later that she had seen the paper notice from the police taped to the wall informing stall owners not to sell food during Ramadan, but she's illiterate and could not read what it said.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

After her story started getting attention, a fundraising campaign was launched online by a group of four Indonesians.

After just a day and a half, 2,427 donors poured in 265 million Rupiah ($19,783) to help her recoup her losses. The sum is sizeable, given that the average labourer in Indonesia earns about 2 million Rupiah ($149) per month.

One of the four people running the campaign, Dwika Putra, posted the closing figure on Twitter:

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Even Indonesian president Joko Widodo is reportedly said to have sent an aide to hand her 10 million Rupiah ($746), outside of the fundraising effort.

Because donations kept coming in online after the deadline closed, the fundraisers said on Tuesday they would give the excess to other stall owners affected by the raid in Saeni's area.

[h/t: Coconuts Jakarta]