Source: http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=349600019
The Western Union Foundation recently announced several grants aimed at supporting nearly 50 charitable organizations in more than 20 countries and totaling $1.8 million. Most of the grants have been provided to organizations that focus their activities on addressing the issues related to 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.”
The grants have been mainly divided into two categories i.e. Building Bridges Between Migrants and Receiving Communities and Creating Opportunities and Choices at Home.
It is a fact that new immigrants in the host country face a number of obstacles to success. Many of the grants are aimed at easing 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 counseling, 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.
As far as creating opportunities locally is concerned, the foundation has made a $10,000 grant to Open Africa that 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.
The Western Union Foundation’s grant of $80,000 to the Tsinghua University Education Foundation in China 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.
