Recently, Denver-based Western Union Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek and Chief Compliance Officer and Western Union Foundation Board Chair Jacqueline Molnar made a visit Uganda to provide leadership training and had the opportunity to perceive how one non-profit’s peace building initiative is working to transform the country and support young people from war-torn regions of Uganda and South Sudan.
Earlier this year, the Western Union Foundation announced a three-year grant totaling USD$1,119,000 to support the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI). With the support of the foundation, WPDI’s Youth Peacemaker Network is working to provide access to life-skills, conflict-resolution education and vocational training for 10,000 refugees and internally displaced persons at the settlement in Kiryandongo, Uganda.
This December, the program honored its first graduating class of 52 program trainers at the refugee settlement in Kiryandongo, Uganda, where the UNHCR reported approximately 55,000 refugees and asylum seekers reside, 65% of whom are under 18. Western Union and the Western Union Foundation have a long history of supporting organizations and issues related to migration, refugees and humanitarian crisis. We believe education and humanitarianism are the surest pathways to economic opportunity for fragile and vulnerable communities.
The Western Union Foundation through collaborations with NGOs has embarked on a five-year mission to connect 50,000 migrants, refugees, women and young people to the global economy through demand-driven skills training and workforce enablement programs by 2020. The foundation believes that education is one of the surest pathways to economic opportunity. The Foundation also offers a global scholarship program that helps put a post-secondary education in reach for in-need students studying in the STEM fields and business. To date, more than $113 million has been given to fund projects affecting more than 800,000 people in 137 countries across the globe, including humanitarian relief for communities in crisis.
