Five days after the Centre demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes, people all over the country are still struggling to lay their hands on lower denomination notes in order to go about their daily lives.

That is when a church at Kakkanad in Ernakulam opened two of its donation boxes for the people who attended mass on Sunday.

During the mass, the priest announced that the donation boxes would be kept open for a day, and the devout in dire need of change could take as much money as they wished to do so.

“They were allowed to take money from the boxes. They can later gift it back, once the present crisis is over,” said church Vicar Fr Jimmy Poochakkad, while speaking to The News Minute.

“The boxes were opened around 6 am in the morning, and closed only in the evening. Our decision offered timely succour to many. Some of them did not have ATM cards and were struggling to buy basic stuff for the house,” he shared.

According to the priest, around 200 families made use of this facility: “There were many Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in the boxes, but these were left untouched. Smaller denomination currency notes were the ones taken. Though no limit was prescribed, none was seen grabbing at the money. All of them came and took according to their needs in an admirably disciplined manner.”

“Last week many approached me saying they were not able to buy groceries or vegetables due to lack of smaller denomination notes. This was the only way the church could have helped them in the matter,” he added.