The Lost Boys and Blue Keys

For many years at two agencies we had the honor of representing The Heinz Awards.

They are annual awards given out by Teresa Heinz-Kerry, whose first husband Senator John Heinz was killed in the 90's as he was serving in the senate.  In most years those awards were given in five categories including Arts and Humanities, one of the late senator's passions.

In its 13th year, the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities was given to Dave Eggers, the critically acclaimed novelist and publisher who has parlayed his career into one of creativity and philanthropy.

A current UN photo showing the plight of refugeesPerhaps Eggers signature piece of work is his novel "What is the What."  In this mix of fact and fiction, Eggers chronicles the story of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," the tens of thousands of Sudanese children who were forced to flee the country during its civil war in the 1980's.  The story is based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who as a six-year-old was separated from his family, encountered terrible conditions in Ethiopian refugee camps, somehow makes it to Kenya, was later resettled to the United States, went to college and met Eggers who then told the Lost Boys story through Deng's experiences.

Deng is obviously one of the success stories, one that beat the odds.  There are millions of "the lost" displaced by countless wars.  They roam with little food, little shelter and little hope.  Some end up in camps, some don't.  They are the unwanted by-product of unwanted violence.

My friend and fellow comrade in PR and blogging Shonali Burke asked me to join her in  getting the word out about a way to help these refugees by promoting  The Blue Key Campaign, a project of the USA for UNHCR – The UN Refugee Agency.

The goal of the Blue Key Campaign is a pretty simple one, between now and World Refugee Day on June 30, it aims to sign up 6,000 Americans to make a $5 pledge and receive a Blue Key or Pendant in support of the effort.

Those funds will be used to help the 43 million refugees worldwide who are still "lost" and aid the 6000 UNHCR staffers who help them find food, water, shelter and hopefully new lives.

So please join the cause, make a donation and get your own Blue Key.  If you blog, please feel free to post and if you're on Twitter spread the word by  regularly sharing Blue Key related information using the #bluekey hashtag, following @UNRefugeeAgency, "liking" USA for UNHCR on Facebook.

I encourage you to read Eggers' book and the support material for the campaign.  Thanks.

Jon Newman

In 2002 Jon cofounded The Hodges Partnership and has helped to grow it into one of the country’s largest public relations firms (based on O’Dwyer’s annual rankings). Jon has taught communications as an adjunct professor at VCU, speaks regularly at conferences and meetings and blogs and tweets about public relations and marketing issues.

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