Grains of love: There’s no need to plant or buy rice to give to someone. Playing an online quiz game or engaging in a simple activity can “magically” produce rice for the benefit of others. (Photo : Getty Images)
Don’t have extra money but want to help people in need, such as those who can’t afford a decent meal? Well, one can put those trainers on and go jogging or define the meaning of the word “sick” and expect help to come their way.
For Mo Zihao or “Megil” and Wang Zi or “Prince,” they desired to contribute something to remedy social problems and at the same time wanted to encourage others to do the same thing, reported South China Morning Post.
The two young social entrepreneurs, however, noticed that many people lack the initiative to involve themselves in charitable works.
It inspired them to create an app that would persuade people to do simple tasks that would benefit them and that would even lead to something far more benevolent.
Thus, the Beijing-based startup RiceDonate Network Technology was born on Oct. 2015, according to Asia for Good, a website that features social enterprises.
The site describes Mo and Wang’s mobile application as something that “empowers charitable causes and encourages healthy living.”
Since its foundation, RiceDonate have joined some 500 community projects and worked with some 250 non-governmental organizations.
Some 50,000 people have likewise used the app, which has a total size of 23.44 Mb.
RiceDonate basically works this way: users accomplish a task and get rewarded with virtual rice.
Users can go jogging, answer random questions like a quiz-based game show participant, get up early, or, on a more personal level, get in touch with a family member--the four tasks the app suggests--to earn virtual rice.
They can later on donate their rewards to any nonprofit organization of their choice listed in the app.
Companies and private organizations support the various forms of philanthropy presented by RiceDonate, according to SCMP.
Many years ago, the idea of using the entertainment aspect of technology to promote humanitarian efforts entered the minds of the people behind an organization working on numerous projects of global scale.
The United Nations World Food Program, “the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide” as it introduces itself on its website, has been doing a similar endeavor for almost a decade now.
As it has been pursuing “a vision of the world in which every man, woman and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life” since its creation in 1961, WFP runs the non-profit website Freerice.
This U.N. agency launched a game carrying the tag line “Not your average online trivia game!” on Oct. 2007, according to Freerice.com.
As it invites everyone to “rice up against hunger,” the game aims to provide free education and free rice to people.
To participate, one can visit the site, sign up and prepare to answer questions covering the following fields of study: Art, Chemistry, English, Geography, Language Learning and Math.
What is the game’s promise to its players? It will donate 10 grains of rice--real rice--for each correct answer they get.
A gram of rice contains 48 grains.
Freerice.com. tweeted on April 19, 2013: “Thank you Freericers! We’re getting close to having raised 100 billion grains of rice for the world’s hungry.”
Indeed, using smartphones appropriately is a smart thing to do. It then becomes noble when its use initiates improvements in the living condition of people across the globe.
