Giving back to the world just became as easy as clicking a button on your computer screen, and it's free.

A week or so ago I wrote an article entitled, 'On-line charities are a perfect place to see how people help the world, and inspire you to join a good cause.' This is a little follow-up article just to tell you about an amazing site that a friend told me about after reading the first article. It's called www.thehungersite.com and it's an incredible concept that has obviously struck a chord with many people, as there are now several links for five other similarly constructed sites. The main concept is that if visitors go to the site and simply click on the button 'Give free food-Click here', 1.1 cups of staple food will be given to undernourished and starving human beings in the world. How can this be true? All we have to do is click a button and food is given to hungry people? Yesterday alone the site had given a total of 148,735 cups of food. Since its inception on June 1, 1999 (6years in existence), over 417 million cups of food have been given by the site's sponsors and supporters.

This is how it works. The site is sponsored by many organizations, the two main ones being the Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest. The sponsors have to pay to have their banners advertised and all of the proceeds go to the charity. After you make a click the many sponsors' ads come up and one has the opportunity to buy merchandise or give donations that go directly to the cause. To give food you don't have to buy anything, just click, but I figure that people who buy things and give a little extra are what make the system work. I don't really know exactly how it does function, but the site stipulates that you can go back every day and just clicking on the button gives people food. They want you to tell your friends and colleagues of course, and I guess the more visitors the site receives, the more chance that people also purchase a few items from what looks to be like very reputable organizations.

So One click gives 1.1 cups of staple food to the hungry. Well, at one of the affiliate sites (similar concept) www.therainforestsite.com, click on the button called, 'Save Our Rainforests: Click here', and 'Thank you! Your click has funded the preservation of 11.4 square feet of endangered rainforest. Please click every day and support the sponsors below, who pay for your gift.' comes up on the screen. On June 01 alone, visitors who clicked on this button protected 1,025,008 square feet of endangered land. The site stipulates that they give 100% of collected revenue from sponsor banner advertising to their charity partners, who use it to protect wilderness land. Since the site's advent in 2000, 1.2 billion square feet (29,000 acres) of endangered forestland has been protected and preserved.

There are four other sites built out of this same construct: www.thebreastcancersite.com who fund free mammograms, www.thechildhealthsite.com who help provide basic health services to children around the world, www.theliteracysite.com who provide books for children, and www.theanimalrescuesite.com who give food and care to rescued animals in shelters and sanctuaries.

I really think that these sites are an incredible step forward in showing that people in our society are becoming more aware and compassionate in relation to the world around them Have a look at some of these sites and see just how easy it has become to lend a helping hand to the Earth and the marginalised people and creatures who share its magical life force.