Vietnam sets up Rice ATMs to help the needy amid Covid-19 lockdown

Team Udayavani, Apr 14, 2020, 4:34 PM IST

Amid the Covid-19 lockdown, poor people are suffering the most as they are running out of essential supplies and in order to tackle the situation, a Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work.

The machine distributes a 1.5kg bagful of rice to workers, many of whom are street sellers or people who earned a living from cash-in-hand jobs like housekeeping or selling lottery tickets.

Hoang Tuan Anh, the businessman behind the idea, earlier had donated a batch of smart doorbells to hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. Similar ‘rice ATMs’ have been set up in other big cities like Hanoi, Hue and Danang.

Vietnam has reported 262 Covid-19 cases and there is a 15 day lockdown which began on March 31 and many small businesses have been shuttered and thousands of people temporarily laid off from work.