Kids In Indiana Helping Feed Uganda

(CBS)  At Palwong elementary in northern Uganda, kids begin the school day dragging desks into tin-roofed, mud-brick classrooms. But no one is complaining - at least they are safe from a vicious and still-simmering civil war that forced their families into camps.

Eight thousand miles away, Grade 6 students in Bloomington, Ind., buckle down for another day, and although they don't know it, what they learn in class matters to the kids in Palwong, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

The link is FreeRice.com, a vocabulary game in which every correct answer means 20 grains of rice is donated to the World Food Programme.

"If I get the answer wrong, it tells me what it means. Now my vocabulary is getting bigger," said one Bloomington sixth grader.

A click of the mouse in Indiana ... a click of a stick in Palwong.

It's all about words, and every handful of rice that goes into the pot for lunch at Palwong came from FreeRice. So far, the game has generated 28 billion grains of rice.

That's enough to feed more than a million people for one day.

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Read more on Couric & Co. blog.

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According to the World Food Programme, school meals boost enrollment and help keep children in class. But school feeding programs, including the one in Palwong, are under threat.

The school used to offer breakfast too, but rising food prices and a shortfall in aid money forced them to cut to lunch only…and for many of these kids, school is the only decent meal they get.

"If we do not have lunch, you go there at home you'll not find food at home, then you come here, and you start sleeping," said one Ugandan student.

There are no computers at the Uganda school. There isn't even electricity. And books are a luxury. But like kids everywhere, the minds are eager.

"I would like to be a teacher," one student said.

"I want to be a nurse," said another.

And another: "I like to study history, I like it best."

The kids who learn words on FreeRice can no more imagine where the rice goes than those who receive it can understand where it comes from.

[justsane-2009]

i am simply amazed at the hateful comments that this nice story has recieved. might i say to those who have felt the need to spew venom, try doing something positive in your communities instead of finding fault with those who are helping others. at the end of the day, you''ll feel better, and you will have helped your cause. who knows, perhaps your efforts will lead to something that will attract national media, like this story has, and your efforts will be multiplied many-fold...just a thought.

[gmond]

I had visited freerice.com after a friend sent me the url, and I was very skeptical. Now I will be recommending it, with the usual wish that efforts like this would benefit American kids as well for a change.

[bigboy1069]

There''s more than corn in Indiana

[blackstudman]

The year is 2050! Americas children are starving. The reply from the rest of the world towards Americas plight is, "who cares."

[blackstudman]

Lets love these aide infested children why they are making other aids babies why they themselves are babies to. Then they grow up and want to commit Jhad against Americans. What a screwy line of reasoning!

[blackstudman]

Lets take care of all the terrorist children? Why not? This is really showing love! Lets not take care of our own to promote the fact that this is not what we are supposed to do! This way our example to our own proves that we love them by not helping them. This is a really wack out statement huh!

[blackstudman]

See people will take care of future terrorist in other countries than people who are homeless right here in America? I make ghetto children everywhere and you have to take care of them because I chose not to love or nurture them.Yes lets figure out the woes of the other nations and not look at our own stoop, backyard, of poverty homelessness, health and hospitals! Lets help build the better tomorrow for terrorist.

Lets take care of them today so tomorrow they can perform Jhad on us out of their love!

[blackshaft-2009]

Yes lets figure out the woes of the other nations and not look at our own stoop, backyard, of poverty homelessness, health and hospitals! Lets help build the better tomorrow for terrorist.

[blackshaft-2009]

See people will take care of future terrorist in other countries than people who are homeless right here in America? I make ghetto children everywhere and you have to take care of them because I chose not to love or nurture them.

[lewiston14]

Im so sick of seeing these pukes on screen i might filter it out. Push an issue so much people will stop watching