If you are unfamiliar with "Humans of New York" (HONY), it's really time for you to crawl out of that miserable hole you've been living in and come join the rest of us.

HONY is a popular online blog that publishes pictures and short interviews with people of New York (hence its name). The blog was started by photographer Brandon Stanton in 2010 and has since become increasingly popular with everyone with a beating heart and feelings.

While Stanton usually limits his projects within city borders, recently HONY has stepped a bit outside of New York City, to Turkey and to Jordan, where many Syrian refugees stay and where some are awaiting notice from the United States government to allow them into the country. Some of them are older fathers or mothers who have been displaced from the homes they have created for their families and the people they have known for decades. Some are young adults or children who have been pulled from their education and put on a seemingly endless road to safety. They all have heart-wrenching stories to share with the world.

HONY's series on Syrian refugees has brought attention to the terrible crisis in the Middle East to which many Americans have turned a blind eye, highlighting individual stories of those whose lives have been torn apart by war and are in the process of putting them back together.

There is the architect who had built a great business and a good home, passionate about creating inventions to better the world, but had the business ruined and the home destroyed by violence and now can't get a job at a foreign university that teaches with his book.

There's the couple who escaped ISIS's attempted recruitment and had their case deferred when trying to relocate in America. Luckily, they were accepting during the course of the interview and received the good news by Stanton on camera.

There's Aya, a young refugee who has escaped war in Iraq and Syria, now resettling in her third country. She wants to continue her education and live in a place that would be safe for her, her family, and George, her "refugee" dog who has comforted her throughout the whole ordeal. Aya has long been in love with America and dreams of settling here. Her family's application was rejected due to her father's connections with the army (even though all young males were required to join military service, and he has never picked up a gun).

HONY is working directly with Aya, and has since made efforts to raise awareness of her situation by creating an online petition which you can sign. Stanton has stated that, "I have created a petition for that purpose. It’s not a petition, actually. We’re not asking that any action be taken. It’s an invitation. It’s an invitation for President Obama to join us in saying: ‘Aya is important to us. We do not believe she is a threat. And we think she deserves to be here.'"

Among all the fear-mongering and hate-filled rhetoric that many Americans, including American leaders, are indulging in amidst the recent tragedies in the world, stories like those of Aya's remind us of what is at stake for victims of warfare and demands of us the compassion to see beyond our fears and realize our duties as Americans and as human beings.