Dawn of the Teen-Age Philanthropist – How One 19 Year-Old University Student is Saving Lives by Creating Educational Computer Games

Rome, Italy, January 30, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Anyone who wants to do their part to help save the world these days, needs only to start playing games - games like the one invented by 19 year-old Chung-Guk Kim of Rome, Italy, that is. Not your average computer game, the game offered by Chung-Guk’s web site - FreePoverty.com - offers players the chance to donate cups of clean drinking water to countries without fresh water supplies with each correct answer. The game is a simple test of one’s geographical knowledge, and was inspired by a similar set-up at FreeRice.com - a foundation created to allow users to donate grains of rice to impoverished countries, just by playing a word game.

In Chung-Guk’s game, players are asked to point to a particular place on a world map. The closer they are to the correct answer, the more cups of water are donated; between one and ten, depending on how far from the requested location they are able to put their flag. Apart from donations, FreePoverty.com also uses the revenue generated from the game, as well as advertisements on the site, to send water to these countries. The monies collected and generated are then given to an organisation such as UNICEF or WaterAid, who will then donate the water on FreePoverty.com’s behalf.

In addition to inspiring others to visit the site and play the game, the team at FreePoverty.com hopes to attract the attention of an organisation willing to sponsor the foundation. The team hopes that an established company will recognise the importance of FreePoverty.com’s mission, and be willing to align themselves with the foundation in order to help the group gain more exposure from a trusted source. “We want the person (or organization) to be trustworthy” said FreePoverty.com spokesperson, Rubina Singhsachathet. “By sponsoring us, it is as if [they] are saying they believe in us and that what we are doing is important. That’s all we’re really looking for.” In a recent interview, Chung-Guk stated “We [want] some sort of organisation willing to sponsor us… to show the world that we are not just an act.”

In an attempt to gain even more exposure for the foundation, Chung-Guk is also creating an application for the popular social site Facebook, with the hope that FreePoverty.com’s mission to bring clean drinking water to impoverished countries will become viral. The application will be designed not only to encourage users of Facebook to play the game and visit sponsor web sites; but also to help educate them as to the importance of FreePoverty.com’s mission to bring clean drinking water to those countries without. As Rubina Singhsachathet, spokesperson for Freepoverty.com stated, “Knowing helps; and we are here to prove that.”

For more information about FreePoverty.com, or to help send your cups of water to impoverished nations by playing Chung-Guk’s game, visit them on the web at www.freepoverty.com. Remember, every cup donated helps; and knowledge is power.

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