FreeRice – a life-saving vocabulary game?

English vocabulary buffs (and us mere mortals) can now turn their knowledge into rice donations to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), according to a new online game FreeRice.com.

The fun game presents you with a word and four possible definitions. For every correct answer you give, FreeRice donates 10 grains of rice to WFP.

The official goals of FreeRice are:

• Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

According to FreeRice, it has donated 1,712,371,750 grains of rice since its launch on 7 October.

Unfortunately FreeRice does not give much information about who is behind the project, other than it being the sister site of poverty.com which was created by a “private individual”, John Breen. This secrecy brings out the sceptic in me, but WFP has acknowledged being the beneficiary, so who am I to be sceptical.

Besides who cares about my scepticism, when the game is free, fun, educational and maybe life-saving? You decide at FreeRice.com

TAGS: FreeRice, vocabulary game