Game to combat Hunger: FreeRice

I guess you know all the charity commercials very well, just like me. The commercials where they show the awfully poor, sick and skinny children, who are about to die. These commercials always break my heart. I think almost everybody has something to give, but maybe that’s not always money. And so, what if you don’t have the means to donate? Well, there’s alternative I’d like to tell you about today. A game to combat hunger: FreeRice.

Charities

I barely ever donate money to charity organizations. It’s avaricious, I know. It’s one of the things I want to change about myself in the future, I want to donate more. Only last week someone came by from the Dutch heart association and I’ll be dead honest: I shut the door (after saying no thank you of course). For me it’s really a conflict. I want to help, but I don’t know if the money is going where I want it to go. Some charities test new medicines on animals and I don’t want to support that. Other spends the money on themselves. And to be honest: I think there are also charities who miss the entire point. I guess I have to do more research about this matter since I consider myself wealthy enough to donate (most people in the Netherlands are).

Update 2022: I now donate about 6% of my income to charities, read more about the charities I support to help people, the charities I support to help nature and the charities I support to help animals. 

FreeRice: How it works

Anyway, forget the money part. You can also help by giving something else: your time! The United Nations have developed a game for that! FreeRice! It’s a vocabulary game, so there’s also a win for you. Here’s how it works. You can play the game on the FreeRice website or in the app. Once there, you see a word (in English) and below that there’re multiple answers. You have to choose the synonym for the word. You can set your own difficulty level and play the game! Here’s a screenshot of the game on Safari:

FreeRice: The impact

For every right answer, the amount of money of an equivalent of 10 grains of rice is given to the World Food Program (set up by the UN). This is generated by the ads. On the right side on the picture above you see ads, two to be precise. When you answer a question, the ads refresh. For every ad you see, an amount of money is earned. This money goes the World Food Program. Even though the amount of money of an equivalent of 10 grains is given to The World Food Program, rice is not the only thing they give to the people in need. ‘WFP gives a mix of foods to people in different places around the world, depending on their emergency and nutritional needs, local customs, and other factors’ (source).

Assisting 86.7 million people in around 83 countries each year, the World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. – World Food Program

So, instead of playing candy crush or something, I suggest you kill your time with this game! You donate to charity, you improve your English and create positive impact!

Did you know about this game to combat hunger, FreeRice?

Yours sincerely,
Romee