10 Easy, Free, Online Steps You Can Take To End Poverty

Gavin Hudson — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:20:41 +0000

“Nobody is asking us to love others more than we love ourselves,” said the “poet president” of Tanzania Julius Nyerere. “But those of us who have been lucky enough to receive a good education have a duty also to help to improve the well being of the community to which we belong; is part of loving ourselves!”

Step 1: Click once a day at TheHungerSite.com.

You’ll fund the donation of 1.1 cups of food. While you’re there, take a look at their equally worthy sister sites.

Step 2: Play at FreeRice.com.

Study for the GRE, test your English abilities, or simply bone up on your vocabulary. While you do, your clicks will generate funding for donating free rice to the hungry. Better yet, share this online game with students you know.

Step 3: Sign the petition at HelpSweden.org.

This tongue-in-cheek organization turns our concepts of poverty around and asks for a renewed commitment to the Millennium Development Goals. Read more about what makes HelpSweden a good idea.

Step 4: Put some of your paycheck into Kiva.org.

You’ll get your money back and you’ll have helped somebody to build a business or a home.

Kids of All Ages Play Online Game to Feed Hungry

Gavin Hudson — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 13:31:56 +0000

Warning: the online "edutainment" game at www.freerice.com is addictive. Side effects include the ability to sound smarter, increased levels of altruism and good karma, and the possibility of warm tingly feelings in your stomach.

What’s unique about the vocabulary-building game at Freerice.com — and the reason we think you should give it a gander — is that as you play you’re donating rice to feed hungry people through international aid agencies. A sister site of Poverty.com, Freerice.com is a fun way to help humanity while you improve your language prowess.

It’s the perfect scheme: hook students and aspiring socialites on a vocabulary-building game so captivating that advertisers will pay big bucks to market on the site, then use the marketing profits to feed hungry people around the world through international aid agencies. Excellent…

The word generator used in the game matches your skill level. Thus, whether you’re a scholarly lexical wizard or a sixth-grader with some savoir faire, the game will give you words appropriate to challenge you at your current vocabulary level. This makes the game is a good tool for people of all ages — from the young student to the college grad studying for the GRE to the person simply looking to beef up her or his vocabulary.

Here’s how it works. For each word, you get four possible multiple-choice definitions. For every word you get right, Freerice.com donates ten grains of rice and raises your vocabulary level slightly. If you get a word wrong, the correct definition appears and the game offers you a slightly easier word.

And remember, helping to alleviate hunger helps the environment and other species as well. As we mentioned in 7 Unorthodox Ways to Help Save Gorillas from Extinction, the threat of hunger often forces people to adopt unsustainable methods of survival, like poaching, exhaustively depleting natural resources, encroaching on new land in search of further resources, and relying on IMF loans to buy pesticides and genetically copyright seeds.

So fire up your vocabulary and give the game at Freerice.com a shot. It’s a fun way to tickle the gray cells, build your vocabulary, and better the world while you’re at it — one grain of rice at a time.

Photo Source:

A bowl of boiled rice | Flickr