Kids Entertainment Professionals for Young Refugees launch new solidary campaign

Commencing on June 1st and continuing all month long, Kids Entertainment Professionals for Young Refugees (KEPYR) will host its 8th annual “Kindred Spirits” campaign, this year in aid of the over half million Rohingya Muslim children living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Via their website, KEPYR will offer the opportunity to donate to UNICEF USA’s critical aid work in Cox’s Bazar as well as an exclusive eBay auction featuring art from top talent. This year’s artists include multiple award-winning cartoonist, writer, and creator Matt Groening ("The Simpsons"); "Ben Ten" Co-Creator and Eisner nominated comics cover artist Dave Johnson; fellow comics heavyweight Dan Brereton ("X-Men"); Martin Baynton, the British author, illustrator, and producer famous for his classic children's book and animated series "Jane and the Dragon"; and Sean McManus, revered for his work on "Sandman, Swamp Thing", and "Fables" for DC Comics.

“To the extent they are on people’s radars at all, the Rohingya are at best on the periphery of our consciousness here in the West,” noted Grant Moran, Head of KEPYR. “They’re geographically distant from us, their plight has been dragging on since 2017, and right now other urgent displacement crises, in Gaza and Sudan in particular, are understandably commanding the headlines. So, there is a real danger of 'out of sight, out of mind' with the Rohingya. It’s at the heart of KEPYR’s mission to shine light on children who can far too easily be forgotten and to provide our entertainment community with a simple way to put into positive action Fred Rogers’ reminder that 'we are intimately related. May we never even pretend that we are not.’ For us in kids media that means all children are our business.”

KEPYR was founded by industry professionals in 2017 to spread awareness in the children's media community about the global child refugee crisis, the worst since WWII, and to rally support for UNICEF's heroic work serving displaced children everywhere