After months of searching for Filipino migrants who had made an outstanding
difference in making a positive impact in the community, The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), a
leader in global payment services, announced today the top 25 Filipino migrants
who are living proof that Filipino migrants are indeed our modern day heroes.
Western Union had deemed it important to
recognize heroic efforts of Filipino migrants, especially during Filipino Heroes
Day, to affirm their invaluable contribution to their families, communities and
the country. The migrants did not just send money back home; they had also given
pride to the Filipino community with their successful missions.
“Heroes for Better campaign celebrates lives of migrant Filipinos, their work and their personal advocacies because they were the ones who were courageous enough to run after their dreams and in fact, they even took it further by fulfilling other people’s dreams,” shares Patricia Riingen, Senior Vice President, South East Asia & Oceania, Western Union. “The campaign does not just recognize and tell their stories, it also provides them a platform to inspire others to pay it forward.”
Present
in last Monday’s Heroes for Better press conference were three heroes –
Nilo Beltran, founder of the Skills
Caravan – a non-profit organization which provides free technical skills
workshops to jail inmates, out of school youth and unemployed members of
underprivileged communities in the Philippines;
Edmond Corpuz, founder of the “Black Pencil” advocacy project which
helped bring school supplies to 1,200 school children in rural areas; and
Nestor Puno, a missionary who teaches a
small school in Japan for Filipino and Filipino-Japanese children who cannot
enter regular schools due to their residency status.
“I guess it holds true for all of us heroes that it started with an issue that had affected us and it simply compelled us to take action. It’s not that we wanted to change the world, we just wanted to help in our own way,” says Nestor Puno.
“This recognition given to us by Western Union only inspires us to continue and even extend the reach of our advocacies, involve more people, and hopefully influence other migrants to start their own missions too,” adds Nilo Beltran.
Learn more about inspiring stories of
the top 25 Filipino migrants by visiting wuheroesforbetter.org.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global
payment services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and
Western Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union
provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient ways to
send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to purchase money
orders. As of June 30, 2015, the Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded
services were offered through a combined network of over 500,000 agent
locations in 200 countries and territories and over 100,000 ATMs and kiosks,
and included the capability to send money to millions of bank accounts. In
2014, The Western Union Company completed 255 million consumer-to-consumer
transactions worldwide, moving $85 billion of principal between consumers, and
484 million business payments. For more information, visitwww.westernunion.com.