Hue, Da Nang cities set up free ‘rice ATMs’

Donors in the central city of Hue have set up a 'rice ATM' in the city to help underprivileged people that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volunteers at colleges in the city set up the first site at the Phu Xuan private college at 28 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street on April 11 to give 2kg of free rice for each person.

They said donors have been supplying free rice to poor local residents at several sites in the city to avoid large crowds gathering.

Donors in Thua Thien-Hue province also collected 4,000 face masks, 1,000 hand sanitiser bottles and 4 tonnes of rice to hand over to two provinces – Salavan and Sekong in Laos – to support the fight against COVID-19.

The Da Nang City Young Businessmen Association also said it would set up two free ‘rice ATMs’ to help poor people in Da Nang from next week.

Chairman of the association Ha Duc Hung said the first ATM would be installed at Trung Nu Vuong Street in downtown Hai Chau district before being spread to more locations in Hoa Vang, Cam Le, Thanh Khe and Lien Chieu districts.

The association has collected 40 tonnes of rice from donors in the city, and there are plans to gather more.

He said the free rice ATMs would operate till end of June.

Earlier, free rice ATMs were installed in HCM City and Hanoi to help poor people during COVID-19 pandemic.

A charity in Da Nang has also presented 1,500 bottles of watermelon juice to doctors, nurses and medical workers at COVID-19 frontline hospitals in Da Nang.

The group said it had bought 1.5 tonnes of watermelon from farmers in Quang Ngai province to help clear overloaded stocks at farms.