Haiti and Afghanistan are facing incredibly urgent humanitarian crises.

Families on the ground in Haiti and Afghanistan are desperate for aid. However,  Western Union and MoneyGram are currently siphoning large sums of money from Haitian and Afghanistan aid relief under the guise of “processing fees.” There is precedent for companies like Western Union and MoneyGram to offer “no-fee” transfers in times of dire emergencies. As such, we need your support to petition Western Union and MoneyGram to immediately waive all fees – not just the direct bank transfer fees – for the next three months so that the full sum of aid reaches those in need in Haiti and Afghanistan.

Following the assassination of Haiti’s president in July 2021, extreme violence ensued in the country. Then in August 2021, a devastating earthquake killed 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed over 120,000 homes – leaving hundreds of thousands of families homeless. Two days later, Tropical Depression Grace hit the country, pummeling Haiti with rain that caused hundreds of landslides.

Meanwhile, after a brutal and seemingly endless war, the people of Afghanistan are left to deal with the consequences of the departure of U.S. forces and the continued socio-economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.  As a result, thousands are fleeing Afghanistan with just the clothes on their back and seeking refuge in the United States and elsewhere. Afghanistan’s economy is on the brink of collapse and a UN report estimates that 97 percent of the population could plunge into poverty by mid- 2022.

There is an urgent need for direct aid to get to children and families as quickly as possible, so that people can buy food, get water, bury their relatives, and secure tarps and tents for housing. While a $3.00 fee is just a drop in the bucket for a company like Western Union, which generated $4.8 billion in revenue in 2020, that fee may mean that a family in Haiti or Afghanistan might not eat for the day.

Some of the most impacted people in remote and rural communities do not have access to any other banks. It is imperative that Western Union’s and MoneyGram's regular money transfer offices provide services to Haitians and Afghans who face life-threatening conditions without taking fees that could help people meet basic needs.

Sign now and urge Western Union and MoneyGram to do what is right, and help people facing life or death crises get the aid they need to survive.