On Feb. 4, 2020, a post on Singapore Atrium Sales about a group of Vietnamese people handing out free masks outside Punggol MRT went viral.
Many praised the selflessness of the people handing out the masks.
Mothership got in touch with Adrian, one half of the couple behind the mask giveaway, and it turns out, this wasn't their first time doing it.
Adrian and his wife Vy, who is a Vietnamese PR in Singapore, was in Vietnam during Chinese New Year.
It was there that they heard of masks being sold out in Singapore shops and some cases of prices being jacked up.
Adrian told us that he and his spouse decided to buy some masks in Vietnam.
They went to some pharmacies and bought some masks, and there was a limit of two boxes that each of them could purchase.
So the family over there pitched in with masks as well.
That excess supply of masks formed the bulk of what they gave away on Jan. 31.
They gave out 4,000 masks that day, and followed it up with about 6,000 on Feb. 1.
To ensure the most number of people could get these masks, Adrian limited each individual to one pack of 10 masks.
Even with that limit, the masks on the first day were given out completely in 10 minutes.
And that should have been the end of their incredibly generous deed, but thanks to contributions from Vy's friends who were residing in Singapore -- a shoutout to Ni, Thu Tran, Han, Yen Thanh, Ivy, Trucly Duong -- they organised another giveaway on Feb. 4, 2020.
Adrian believes that these free distributions were necessary because humanity should stand together in "times of crisis".
He said that while they were not incredibly well-off, they were adamant on doing their part to help and believed that it was the right thing to do based on their Buddhist beliefs.
Image from Vy's Facebook