Tuesday 11 March 2008

Feed the hungry by surfing the web?

It hardly seems a fair exchange, does it? We can surf the Web, sitting warm and well-fed in the West, and as a result people will get fed in the developing world.

Well, apparently 21 billion grains of rice have been generated by a popular UN backed Internet game. Launched six months ago, freerice.com is an interactive vocabulary game in which players donate 20 grains of rice to the UN's World Food Programme every time they answer a question correctly, allowing individuals to simultaneous bolster their vocabularies and help feed the world’s hungry. The money raised from advertising is used to underwrite FreeRice’s donation to WFP, and so far, enough rice has been generated to feed 1.1 million hungry people for one day.

There is also the longer-established Hunger Site, where you click daily and sponsors donate food. Needless to say, both these sites have Facebook applications. But how do you feel about them? Is it a bit of fun that simultaneously makes you feel philanthropic? Or does it trivialise the desperate situation of those who live on the margins of life?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Won't be enough to save the world though...