With a nationwide lockdown still ongoing and with some people still out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Vietnamese entrepreneur invented an "ATM" which dispenses rice instead of money to provide for the country's poor in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Despite the fact that there are no deaths reported in the country and they only have 262 confirmed cases, the country's government imposed a 15-day social distancing program that started last March 31 which resulted in several small business closing and thousands of people being laid off from work.
In an interview with CNN, Nguyen Thi Ly a resident whose husband got temporarily laid off from work, said that the so-called "Rice ATM" was indeed very helpful. The 34-year-old mother of three said that with the help of the one bag of rice that is being dispensed from the machine her family can have enough food for one day.
Workers, mostly composed of street sellers and people who earn through cash-in-hand jobs, wait in line for their turn on the small silo where the machine is placed and get their 1.5kg bagful of rice.
'Rice ATMs' to be put up across Vietnam.
Aside from Ho Chi Minh City, the state media reported that the ATMs have also been put up in other big Vietnamese cities including Hanoi, Hue and Danang.
In the city of Hanoi, the rice is dispensed from 8 am until 5 pm every day through a large water tank that pours into the bags of the residents.
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According to the Hanoi Times, people waiting in line are required to maintain a six-feet distance from each other and must sanitize their hands before they receive the rice.
Meanwhile, in Hue, the 'rice ATM' which is located at a college provides local residents with 2 kilograms of rice for free.
The man behind the 'Rice ATM'
The machine was a brainchild of businessman, Hoang Tuan Anh, who had previously donated smart doorbells to hospitals in the city before he decided to turn his expertise in technological advancement to help feed and distribute food to the poor.
In a statement released by Anh to the state media, he said that he wanted people to still have access to resources and food despite their current economic difficulty caused by unemployment amidst the health crisis that sent shockwaves all over the world.
He also said that he wants people to feel assured that they still have a second chance in life and that there are still people that are willing to give them a second chance even when they already lost their jobs due to this crisis.
Whilst many people in the country are able to rely on the social safety-net and are being supported through the stimulus package that the government designed to help people, there are still others who have not received their needed support.
Through the help of the 'rice ATM' which was a result of a man's initiative people who are scared of getting hungry in the country are seeing a spark of hope.
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