Guilford College’s Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) program is receiving more national recognition. Only this time the attention is coming from an unexpected source: a comic strip.

Josh Neufeld, a writer and artist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times, published a comic strip earlier this month in The Boston Globe that tells the story of ECAR’s founding and mission.

Josh was inspired to share ECAR’s story following the recent passing of Pope Francis. The program was launched at Guilford in 2015 by Lincoln Financial Professor of English Diya Abdo, after the Pope urged Catholic parishes across Europe to welcome Syrian families fleeing persecution.

The Pope’s passing, coupled with the lingering effects of the Trump Administration’s restrictions on refugee admissions, sparked an idea for Josh. “It felt like the right moment to share this story,” he says. “ECAR is a beautiful story about compassion and action, and I wanted people to know that refugees are still coming to the U.S.—and that this organization is out there doing important work.”

The comic has since been widely shared on social media, where it has been warmly received. “People are loving it and sharing it — on their socials, with their friends, their congregations, and their networks,” Diya says.

Josh is no stranger to visual storytelling with impact. His graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, which follows the lives of six residents before and after Hurricane Katrina, was a New York Times bestseller.

In the comic, Josh encourages other colleges and universities to join ECAR and leverage their campuses and resources to support refugees in their communities. Diya hopes the message continues to resonate beyond Boston.

“The feedback has been filled with hope — hope that this message will spread far and wide,” she says, “and that more institutions will respond to the call for welcome and hospitality that Guilford College has championed through ECAR.”