The Western Union Foundation today announced a series of grants supporting nearly 50 charitable organizations in more than 20 countries and totalling $1.8 million.  Many of the contributions focus on charitable organizations that address the many challenges facing the global migrant population, including access to labor markets and job training programs, language acquisition and acculturating into their new communities.

“Today, many individuals endure loneliness and exile, simply to provide food, shelter and other basic necessities for loved ones back home,” said Luella Chavez D’Angelo, president of the Western Union Foundation.  “The organizations we support work tirelessly to ease some of the burdens faced by these people and their families, giving them a chance to build a better life.  Western Union Foundation’s greater goal is to help people prosper and create economic opportunity.”

Building Bridges Between Migrants and Receiving Communities

New immigrants face a number of obstacles to success.  Several grants will help ease this transition.

A $100,000 grant to Public Interest Projects for Welcoming America will support a national grassroots effort to promote understanding and respect between recent immigrants and their U.S.-born neighbors by fostering awareness and providing integration programs.

A $15,000 grant to Upwardly Global will support college educated immigrants who arrive in the United States, but are challenged to find employment that matches the training and skills they learned in their home country – leaving many in these circumstances underemployed. The program provides individualized career counselling, coaching and mentoring to help these job seekers secure professional careers.

A $10,000 grant to the Shivi Development Society, in India, will help connect migrants, who are moving from outlying areas and Nepal to India’s city centers, with vital local resources and training programs to boost language skills, promote job readiness and encourage civic engagement.  Awareness programs will also work to reduce societal prejudices against migrants, and promote advocacy programs that support debate on comprehensive national migration policy. 

Creating Opportunities and Choices at Home

A $10,000 grant to Open Africa will support a group of women who have developed tourism services and attractions along a heavily used highway in rural South Africa. The Western Union Foundation’s grant will help to further build these businesses through training in marketing and business development.

In China, an $80,000 grant to the Tsinghua University Education Foundation will provide senior university students and graduates with training in business planning, business modelling, investment analysis, market analysis and business governance so they can establish their own businesses and create economic opportunity for themselves and others.

Information regarding these and other grants made by the Western Union Foundation is available at westernunionfoundation.org.

Through its brand, technology and infrastructure, Western Union offers flexible, trusted solutions to people and enterprises on the move throughout the world.  The company is opening new possibilities for the underserved, for small business owners who compete abroad and for everyday consumers with financial needs and few others they can turn to.

About the Western Union Foundation

Through Western Union's Our World, Our Family® signature program, the Western Union Foundation supports initiatives to empower people through access to economic opportunity. Recognized by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy in 2009, the program is a five-year, $50 million commitment reflecting efforts made by Western Union employees, agents and partners around the world. Since its inception, the Western Union Foundation has awarded more than $73.8 million in grants to more than 2,030 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in 108 countries and territories. To learn more, visit westernunionfoundation.org.

Western Union

Western Union

The Western Union Company, a leader in global payment services, believes access to financial services is a necessity. Western Union moves money reliably and quickly to almost every country - and we do it for extraordinary people seeking a better life and for businesses that generate jobs and opportunity.

Our business changes lives for the better. So does the Western Union Foundation: since 2001, the Western Union Foundation has awarded more than $101.1 million in grants to more than 2,730 nongovernmental organizations in more than 135 countries and territories..

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