Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung
Mr. Hung said that since the pandemic had happened in the whole country, he had felt its huge impact on the economy as well as the people’s activities. Enterprises suffered difficulties, and employees were severely affected due to the lack of jobs. “I used to be poor, so I really feel sorry for those people who are heavily affected by the pandemic when the daily income is gone.” When the pandemic had a big impact on the laborers’ livelihood, Mr. Hung bought rice and packed it in bags and distributed them for free to the needy. But due to inexperience, people gathered too crowdedly and messily, without ensuring the safety of pandemic prevention, he forced to stop distributing rice. When he passed Vietnam Television, he knew that there was a rice ATM in Ho Chi Minh City, people directly got rice from the machine and did not contact the distributors, therefore, limiting the risk of disease transmission in the community.
People get free rice from the first rice ATM in Hanoi
“Mesmerized” by the rice ATM, he shared his idea of making a rice ATM in Hanoi on his Facebook page and it was supported by many friends and online community. Mr. Hung said that was the basis and the motivation for him to add his determination to complete the rice ATM. An ATM building group was formed of people with the same enthusiastic, compassionate, and sharing spirit. He took care of finding materials and location expected to base the machine while technological matters were be the responsibility of Mr. Tung, a group member. The important thing he noted to Tung when building the machine was that the button should be pressed by feet in stead of hands to limit the risk of the disease infection. The group members carefully prepared activities for distributing the rice such as receiving support, buying rice, preparing a dry hand sanitizer solution for farmers to use before receiving rice, marking the location of the recipient of rice in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Health (2m apart), using rice bags with environmentally friendly ingredients.
People sanitize their hands before receiving rice
According to Mr. Hung, it is good to do charity work, but, it is also necessary to comply with the regulations issued by the Government, the Ministry of Health and Hanoi City in disease prevention and raising a sense of protection environment. When posting information on Facebook, the group members also told everyone to come and receive rice with bags. If they forget to bring the bag, the group will give a paper bag to limit the use of plastic bags that affect the environment. After many efforts, the first rice ATM has been located at Nghia Tan Ward Cultural Center, Cau Giay District. “Choosing the location for the device is not as easy as I thought at first. I asked to rent the place, but many people refused because they feared chaos and crowds of people causing complications in security and order. Fortunately, when contacting the People’s Committee of Nghia Tan ward, the ward leaders enthusiastically supported our idea and allowed us to put the machine free-of-charge”- Mr. Hung said.
After many stages of preparation, at 8:30 a.m on April 11, the first rice ATM was officially operated. To receive rice, the receiver presses the switch by foot, and the rice flows from the machine through the pipe. Each press will get 3kg of rice. Each person receives rice once a day. Seeing people standing in line orderly at the right distance as prescribed, and the machine operated smoothly, Mr. Hung could not hide his happiness. To support his work, many sponsors and compassionate people contributed funds to buy rice.
Being happy and touched is also the feeling of many people after receiving free rice. They are street vendors (selling brooms, plastic products, buying junk, scavenging, etc.). When the pandemic broke out, they could not go to work and faced many difficulties in their lives. “Thank you Mr. Hung, thank you for your kindness that helped us in this difficult time. A stitch in time saves nine. Hopefully the disease will soon be pushed back so that we can go back to selling goods and make a living. Ms. M. – a street vendor was very touched to express her feeling.
The success of the rice ATM in Nghia Tan made Mr. Hung determined to deploy more rice ATMs at other locations in the city to share with and help the poor and disadvantaged workers who are affected by the pandemic. On April 13, Mr. Hung opened another rice ATM at the Center for Culture, Information and Sports in Bac Tu Liem District.
Minh Hue