(VOVworld) – With just 2,000 VND or 10 cents, poor workers can buy either a book, a pair of shoes, a bottle of oil, or even a new costume offered by the group E2k-Hanoi. E2K or Everything with 2,000 dong is a social project established by a group of young people to sell everything at only 10 cents for poor people and low-income workers.

The E2K’s kiosk is opened every Saturday.

Every Saturday, the small yard of the Medicine Institute in Quang Trung Street, Hanoi has become a venue for poor laborers who can buy essential goods like footwear, books, and household utensils at only 2,000 VND or 10 cents.

The buyers can be vendors, lottery sellers, rag-and-bone-men, shoeblack boys. Nguyen Thi Lan who lives in Hoang Mai district said: “I’m glad to buy clothes at only 2,000 dong. For some people, the amount isn’t worth much. But for us who find it hard to earn the living, the program is very meaningful. In addition, we know that the money from the selling will be used for another charitable program to help many others.”

E2K or Everything with 2,000 dong is a social project established by a group of young people to sell everything at only 10 cents for poor people and low-income workers. The group members got to know each other through another charity project and then have become close friends because of sharing the same viewpoint on community works.

Since August, the group has made online calls to the community to donate secondhand items but still have value. The donations including clothes, household utensils, essential commodities, and textbooks then will be resold for the poor at 10 cents each.

Young members of the group are classifying books to re-sell for poor people and low-income labors. (Photo: baophunuthudo.vn)

All group members are busy at daytime at work and must take advantage of the evening to collect donated items, wipe off stains, and pack them ahead of each sale.

Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong, a volunteer of the E2k group, said: “I’m in charge of receiving donations and arrange them for sale. I join the program every Saturday and feel I can do something for low-income people. We have received many items but keep delivering leaflets to let more people know about the charity program. Sometimes we go to remote areas to do charity but the scale is still larger in Hanoi. I realize receivers feel happy to buy what they need.”

The price of 10 cents for each item is symbolic because group members don’t want disadvantaged people to feel bestowed with a favor and they can choose what they need most.

Ms. Vu Lan (left) is receiving donations from a benefactor.

At first, the E2k group didn’t have a place to store the donations and be used as a kiosk to sell them. Then Vu Lan, a group member, has proposed her agency, the Medicine Institute, for lending the location. Every day, she works at the institute and receives donations from benefactors. Outside working hours, the institute’s guards will do Lan’s work.

Lan said: “Our fixed location now is at 3B Quang Trung Street but in the future, we should make some changes. It’s Ok to gather donated items here but it isn’t convenient for buyers of various types. We’ve found a place in Long Bien market where there are many workers.”

Each week the E2k kiosk opens for one day and each customer is allowed to buy maximum of 10 items.

All the money from each charity sale will continue to be used to help people with difficult situations in remote areas or poor child patients who are undergoing treatment in Hanoi.

In the future, the group will use all the money they have raised to buy warm clothes, furniture, textbooks, and stories for pupils in a school in the mountainous province of Ha Giang and present gifts for child patients to encourage them.