“14 years ago, I had an accident and suffered from a severe head injury. While recovering, I took an oath to help others, provided life gave me another chance. While my initial social service was limited to weekends, one incident that moved me was during the Covid-19 lockdown phase. I was buying a few things to celebrate my younger son’s birthday and noticed the local watchwoman with limited funds buying essentials to feed the migrant workers from Odisha.

My immediate thought was when a watchwoman drawing a meager salary of Rs.6,000 could do this, why couldn’t I?

I immediately sold some land, pooled money from my savings and provident fund and set up the Rice ATM.

Serving cooked food is a tedious routine and only a one-time service, so I felt dry ration was a better alternative. We started distributing kits containing rice and other essential commodities like edible oil, pulses, chili powder, turmeric, sugar, and tea powder which can last a family of 4 for four to five days.

The initial 15 days was hard, especially waking up early and wanting to have the weekend time for myself and my family. It then dawned on me that hunger has no weekends and the migrant workers as part of their routine, usually eat by 7.30 a.m. to get to work.

Our rice ATM was perceived as a boon by many people who have lost jobs or suffering pay cuts due to the pandemic but soon there came a point where we ran out of funds. We slowly started digging into savings set aside for a new home. We have put our dreams on the back burner for now, but that doesn’t stop us from serving the needy.

From helping stranded migrants to flood-hit victims, we have reached out to more than 20,000 families in the last seven months, and I don’t intend to stop until we feed every hungry soul out there!”

#RiceATM #Service #PublicHealth #HelpingHands #Humanity #Society #Inspire #Donation #CoronaVirusLockdown #People #Responsibility #Covid19 #Hungerheroes #Hyderabad #HumansofHyderabad Ramu Dosapati