Valuable change: Coin A Chance community members count the dimes collected from people giving away their spare change, an event held at Oh La La café at Djakarta Theater building Saturday. Proceeds from the coin collecting will go to poor children’s education. Collecting Day happens once a month in different locations. (Check www.coinachance.com). JP/Ricky Yudhistira

What can coins do for you these days? It is good to give them to unofficial traffic attendants or to parking attendants. But sometimes they are simply forgotten and left to pile up, as they are too heavy to keep in the wallet but rather too worthy to throw away.

They are often substituted for candies at supermarkets and mini markets.

The originators of the self-organized Coin A Chance (CAC) say these round metal coins link a child to his future and people to the most important thing - their heart.

CAC collects coins from donors at collection points, chooses the suitable impoverished children who are on the brink of leaving school, and pays their school fees.

The six-month old project has paid the school fee of a primary sixth-grade student, Bintang Gempur Anarki, who has been able to pay his school fees for more than a year.

"We surveyed his house and his school. He is poor but bright. The school is kind enough to let him keep studying even though he has not paid them. We found it very encouraging," one of the founders, Indri Rosid, told The Jakarta Post during a collection at the Djakarta Theatre in Central Jakarta.

CAC plans to support up to 10 students this year and give them interpersonal and study coaching to help them be more confident. The idea started in Jakarta and has spread to Yogyakarta and Bali.

The original idea come from Nia Sadjarwo and Hanny Kusumawati, both public relations staff, who found they had been keeping coins but did not know what to do with them.

"We thought we could do something with these coins to help poor students. But our friends said it was a waste of time," Nia said.

But after some time, in November 2008, they decided to go ahead. Hanny did a small survey in her blog. This time the responses were unexpected.

"People have given us positive feedback and started offering help," said Indri Rosid, the later addition to the group.

One gave them free hosting for their website to which they moved their blog to. Another printed their name cards. Someone designed a logo. A person produced car stickers. Others published their activities in their blogs and posted them in various forums.

Their first coin collections in January collected 15 kilograms or Rp 1.5 million worth of coins from more than 20 donors.

The more determined ones came with money from their colleagues. Putri Respati, for example, printed the CAC poster and placed a big jar in a corner of her office, and sent a mass email, which resulted in the coins flooding in.

"Sometimes we take photos of people who have donated and send the pictures around to encourage others to do the same," she said, while counting a pile of small change at the collection area.

Another man, Rudy Susanto, who runs car dealerhips, did not come with money but an offer. He wanted to encourage donations from his customers by having a CAC car sticker program.

His customers who have the sticker on will get a 2 percent discount. One percent for the customers and 1 percent will be given to them in coins to be put in the collection jars.

"This is a thank you project. Many people have been helping and most do not even want to be mentioned," Indri said.

This is how much coins can connect people to each other, to their future and to their heart.

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