Until relatively recently, I was completely uninformed and unaware of the tragedies and horrors taking place in Syria, specifically, Aleppo. I learned about the mass genocides by seeing a 140 character tweet. This single tweet introduced me to the devastating truth of what was going on in Aleppo: thousands of people were dying and frankly, nobody cared. This truth is still very much apparent today. We have halted ceasefires and continually left innocent and unarmed civilians to be inconsequential victims of cross-fire. Evacuations have failed, and countless citizens are trapped, waiting to be saved, or essentially waiting to be shot. Why is it that Aleppo has not been the center of media attention? This situation has begun gaining some traction within the media, but unfortunately not enough. Many people are completely unaware of the fact that Aleppo even exists, let alone the humanitarian crisis that is very much defining the future of the city. Our news outlets are instead covering stories like Kanye West meeting with Donald Trump, or Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's family outing. I am not invalidating those stories, as I am sure that they are deemed newsworthy to some, but I am invalidating the fact that genocide and strife are always taking a back seat to other "news" stories. As seeing images of dying children and bomb-ridden cities makes us uncomfortable, we often choose to willfully ignore these images in lieu of something less unsettling. I am not placing all of the blame upon media for not bringing enough attention to this issue, but media certainly contributes to a lack of awareness. I believe that this issue is also being extremely mishandled by global politicians, as many countries are choosing to take a more "hands-off" policy in order to not be targeted by enemies of Aleppo. All in all, Aleppo deserves attention. Although you might think that this issue does not directly affect you, it does. We are all directly linked through our human emotion and hopefully, compassion. We must work together to help our brothers and sisters in times of war and crisis.

If you are interested in contributing to an organization that is supporting the citizens of Aleppo, check out this link.