Workplace skills are a key barrier for refugees to integrate into host communities. Our collaboration with Re:Coded in Turkey provides a six-month coding boot camp, preparing conflict-affected youth for jobs in the digital economy. To date, Re:coded has trained over 450 people, with 88% of students trained who were seeking employment are now working as software developers.
We work with nonprofits around the world who are innovating to reach the forcibly displaced, equipping them with technological and entrepreneurship skills to thrive in the modern economy.
Program in Action | Re:Coded
Elizabeth Roscoe and WU Foundation Board member Ernesto visit WPDI youth.
Jacqueline Molnar, Chair of the Western Union Foundation's Board of Directors, shares a laugh with Bosco, one of the Youth Peacemaker Network's first group of graduates.
WPDI Founder & CEO Forest Whitaker introduces Western Union's Jacqueline Molnar and Hikmet Ersek, who both spoke at a special leadership mentoring session for the Youth Peacemaker Network graduates.
Western Union's Hikmet Ersek speaks to the graduates in Kiryandongo.
Program in Action | Whitaker Peace & Development Initative
Building on The Western Union Company’s 2016 commitment at the White House Call to Action on Refugees, the WU Foundation entered into a partnership with the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) in early 2017. Founded by Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, WPDI empowers refugees and displaced persons in Africa, Latin America and the US through job training, conflict resolution and access to digital technologies. We’re investing more than USD $2 million over four years to support WPDI’s Youth Peacemaker Network curriculum in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in Northern Uganda and further expanded to Mexico.
