Words Nourish The Hungry: Web Phenomenon Crosses One Billion Threshold

The head of the UN's World Food Programme Josette Sheeran has
acclaimed the phenomenally successful internet-based vocabulary game
FreeRice (freerice) as an example of the Web's power to mobilise
millions of people in the fight against global hunger.


Yesterday marked the one billionth grain of rice donated to WFP through an
innovative, dynamic online campaign - enough to feed more than 50,000
people for one day.



"Every grain of rice is essential in the fight against hunger," said WFP
Executive Director Josette Sheeran, adding that hunger claims more lives
than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.



"FreeRice really hits home how the Web can be harnessed to raise awareness
and funds for the world's number one emergency. The site is a viral
marketing success story with more than one billion grains of rice donated
in just one month to help tackle hunger worldwide."



For every correct answer to FreeRice's online vocabulary game, the site
donates 10 grains of rice to its official humanitarian partner, WFP.



Just 830 grains of rice were donated on FreeRice's October 7 launch date.
Since then, bloggers and social networking sites like YouTube and Facebook
have helped spread the word and, on November 8 alone, over 70 million
grains were donated - equivalent to more than seven million clicks on the
site.



FreeRice is the latest brainchild of US online fundraising pioneer John
Breen, who first tied funds to clicks on the Web in 1999 with the Hunger
Site, at the time, a WFP partner. Breen runs the Poverty website, a
portal for information and facts about hunger and related diseases.



FreeRice relies on private companies' ad space payments to underwrite
donations to WFP.



WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: on average, each year, we
give food to 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs,
including 58 million hungry children, in 80 of the world's poorest
countries. WFP - We Feed People.

wfp