Now, I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm a vocabulary geek. I love words. I love reading them, writing them and learning them. I've even been called "a walking talking dictionary" a few times... Hehe, it's a funny story... What happened was, one day, I.....
Errr.... Slightly off topic. 😳 Let's get baaack to the subject, which is sliiightly more serious.
According to the United Nations, 25,000 people die EVERYDAY, of hunger or other hunger related causes. 25,000. 25,000 is no small number. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.
Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.
What can be done to help these people?? How can we help?
We hear about world hunger and poverty everyday, experience it everyday, and we wish we could help, but often are unable to do anything. Perhaps, like me, you live somewhere where you don't get a lot of opportunities to help people out. Or again, like me, you don't have the millions Bill Gates has at his disposal. Or maybe you just don't have the time. So how can we help a cause, despite all these constraints???
Freerice.com is a charity website, where you play a game to help feed those suffering from hunger all over the world. You don't have to pay, you don't have to do anything tedious. You play a game, and you could be saving a person's life.
What is freerice.com?
Freerice.com began on October 7, 2007. It was created by John Breen, a computer programmer from Indiana who also created thehungersite.com, therainforestsite.com and Poverty.com. Breen invented the site, and typed in all 10,000 definitions, after observing his son study for the SAT.
The site is associated with the UN World Food Program. An average of 90 million people in more than 80 countries survive on WFP food each year. In exchange for advertisements on the website, various sponsors donate the money necessary to pay for the rice and other costs to run FreeRice. To date, the site's creator has given over $100,000 to the WFP.
One month after the inception of the site, users had earned enough points for one billion grains of rice. The United Nation's World Food Programme stated that this amount could feed 50,000 people for one day.Thus, approximately 20,000 grains of rice provide enough caloric intake to sustain an adult for one day. Using this calculation, enough rice is donated to feed 7,019.15 people daily per the totals for December 28, 2007.
(With continued sponsor support, FreeRice doubled the number of grains donated for each correct definition from 10 to 20, in November 2007. )
Milestones achieved by the site:
The Game
You are given a word with four different options. For every word that you choose the definition correctly, 20 grains of rice are donated. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level.
20 grains may not seem like much, but just think of it, just clicking on 5 words correctly gets you a 100 grains. Now if each one of us IF members alone play this game for just 5 words, imagine how much we are enabling these people to donate? Imagine how many lives we're helping save?
For further information: Visit the following links:
Now, this is like my dream come true... I get to learn new words,(HEY!!!!!!!!!! WHO ARE YOU CALLLING "GEEK"?????🤓) AND I get to help a cause I feel strongly about!!!!!!!!! 👏
And, in my opinion, this is a cause every one of use should feel strongly about. So spread the word! Every other person you tell about this, joins this fight against world hunger. Together, by spending a few minutes of our days, we can help save thousands of lives.
Love,
Nimmi 😛
PS - You can cheat a little and use dictionary.com to get the answers! 😉 But this time, instead of getting sent to the principal's office or punished, you save a life!!!! 😊 Cheating's never been this good for the soul, yo!!!! 😎
Edited by darkness_123 - 16 years ago
Great post Nimmi! I started doing this yesterday thanks to Nimmi and it's really a great site. Not only are you learning something new you're also helping out the thousands of people who are dying everyday. With a click of your mouse you're helping feed a child/mother/father. It's a great cause and a great way to help out those in need.
OMG nimmi wonderful post👏 Imma in with all my head and toes😃 I am more than glad to be of some service and get all those sins of mine washed😳 even though I am pretty sure they ain't that easy to be washed but heyyyyy atleast I will be helping someone and that the best thing I can EVER do in my life😊 and tons of hugs to you for introducing this🤗
great post.i don't think there could be an easier way to HELP for a genuine cause!!the best award we will probably get is the blessings of those poor people.thank you for leading us to this noble deed. 👏 👏 👏
hey i have been on the site for 5 minutes and donated 200 grains till now.the words are so tough.I am cheating and cheating and cheating.google zindabad.😆
Edited by minimouse2007 - 16 years ago
