http://www.freerice.com
Technology, and all the advancements that it has led to has done us all a lot of good. Of course, abuse of it has given birth to a lot of bad too like pollution and environmental degradation.
However, here is one way that we can use the technology to do some real good to the needy people. At least that’s what is claimed by the website called www.freerice.com
According to the ‘About‘ page on the website, ‘Freerice is a non-profit website that is owned by and supports the United Nations World Food Programme.’
The website has two motives:
1. To spread education
2. To provide free rice to poor and hungry people
And how it achieves these two purposes? By hosting simple quiz that people can play for free on the website. For every correct answer, the program donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme. Ten grains of rice may not sound much, but according to Freerice, since the time the game launched in 2007, correct answers from thousands of users from around the world have managed to provide free rice to millions of hungry people.
Here’s what I like about the website:
1. No Registration Required: Although the website does give an option to become a registered member so you can keep stock of your total score over time and / or form or join social groups on the website. However, the quiz can be played and free rice earned very easily without any registration. The user interface is simple too. Just visit the website, click on the SUBJECTS tab, choose your subject and start playing. rice you earn is displayed alongside the quiz panel.
2. Addictive Quiz in Different Subjects: The website allows the visitors to choose the subject of their choice for the quiz. Various subjects (with various sub-categories) are available like English, Humanities, Maths, Geography, Test Preparation. The quiz can be played in five languages that are English, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean. The quiz is in the form of ‘Choose the correct option’ form. I found the quiz quite addictive. And it’s especially delightful the see the rice gathering up on the side panel.
3. Banners for Websites / Blogs: Freerice encourages people to share Freerice banners on their websites and blogs. Clicking on these banners would of course lead directly to Freerice.com. By adding these banners, we can encourage more people to join the initiative. As you can see by scrolling down a little, I have already added this banner to my blog.
4. Twitter Background / Facebook Covers and More: Not just banners, users can also download Freerice background for Twitter and image that can be used as Facebook covers. Images can be downloaded and printed out to makes posters etc. too. Moreover, schools and teachers are encouraged to download teaching materials and to involve their students in the initiative, thereby helping them to enhance their knowledge and also do good to others in the process. Besides these, special Freerice merchandise can also be bought from the website.
5. Correct Yourself: Here’s another thing that I really like about free rice. If I get an answer wrong, the correct answer is given to me. Not only that, the same question gets repeated after some other questions, again giving me the opportunity to give the correct answer for the question and earn free rice for the needy.
The program does not yet have any smartphone apps. Of course, I can still play the freerice quiz using the browser on my Android. But a nice and well made app would make that far more convenient.
Anyway, do take a look at www.freerice.com and see if you can learn something new, and earn some free rice for the needy in the process!
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Jyoti Arora
Author of Dream’s Sake, Samsung Mobiler
DREAM’S SAKE
