Western Union Invites Global Chinese Community to Join Book Drive

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, today invited the global Chinese community to join a Chinese New Year drive. The goal is to gift the China Youth Development Foundation 31 libraries of 1,000 books, enough for each of mainland China's 31 provinces.

Upholding the Chinese tradition of red envelope, "??," gifting of cash during Chinese New Year, Western Union will make a gift to the China Youth Development Foundation for every transaction sent from one of 21 countries to China during the promotional period.

The company will also donate for every "like" of its post about the campaign on Facebook, and for every "re-Tweet" of its program announcement on Twitter. The program enables consumers to promote education for children in need, just by using or "liking" Western Union.

The 21 participating countries are the United States and Canada in North America; the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Russia in Europe and Central Asia; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East; Angola in Africa; Australia, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia in Asia Pacific; and Brazil, Peru, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay in Latin America.

"Western Union's analysis shows more gifts are given at Chinese New Year than during any festive or seasonal holiday around the world. Billions of gifts of cash are exchanged, traditionally crisp new banknotes wrapped in red envelopes, and increasingly through remittances, with over 40 million Chinese living and working overseas," said Drina Yue, managing director and senior vice president, Western Union Asia-Pacific.

"As we reach out to friends and family in China in the lead-up to Chinese New Year, just by using Western Union we are creating opportunity and bringing good fortune to young people in the year of the snake and beyond. There is no more valuable gift than the gift of knowledge," concluded Yue.