Humans of New York was created in 2010 by Brandon Stanton, an alumni of the University of Georgia.

Humans of New York, or HONY, began as a side project to capture the unique character of the city. Along the way to completing his goal of photographing 10,000 New Yorkers, Brandon noticed that the tone of his project was changing. He started taking quotes from the people he took pictures of and combining them creating the original HONY blog.

From this humble blog, HONY now has over eight million followers on their social media accounts. The millions of followers see pictures ranging from the most colorful characters in the city to children featured in the "micro-fashion" pictures. Over the past few years, however, Brandon has branched out and created social change from social media.

One of the first successful campaigns created by HONY benefited the Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a middle school in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The school is known as a safe place in a crime-plagued area. The campaign started with a picture of a boy referencing Mrs. Lopez, the school principal, as the most influential person in his life.

"Who's influenced you the most in your life?"
"My principal, Ms. Lopez."
"How has she influenced you?"
"When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."

This is one of the first campaigns that HONY started, but it was not the last. This past summer Stanton traveled to Iran and Pakistan and brought his million followers with him. His social projects soon became global campaigns.

He began with pictures of the people in Iran and soon found plenty of worthy causes behind the images. On several posts, followers would reach out to Brandon and comment saying, "How can we help this person?" or "Can we start a fund?" The posts all represent the reality of life in both Pakistan and Iran, and they also show a less violent side of both countries than is represented in the news.

“I grew up in the village behind me. It’s very beautiful here but there are few opportunities. Whenever I think about my children’s prospects, I grow sad. I have nothing to provide for them so they’ll probably end up like me, taking whatever work they can just to survive. My parents died when I was 10. I went to live with my aunt and my uncle. They never gave me grief. They never made me feel bad. But they were also poor, and every time we sat down to eat, I felt like I was stealing from their family. The guilt grew so bad that when I turned 15, I tried to build a shed for myself. I lived there for about six months. But then the winter came. And eventually the cold grew stronger than the guilt.” (Hunza Valley, Pakistan)

Now the blogger is taking on another social issue: the Syrian refugees. The most recent posts are in Greece and Hungary, countries that Syrian refugees are fleeing to en masse in order to escape the persecution and violence in their home country. Syrians are fleeing from a corrupt government and ISIS attacks; both issues are shown in the HONY posts without being sugarcoated.

The extent to which refugee children have been conditioned by their environment is heartbreaking. We wanted permission to take this young girl’s photograph, so we asked if her mother was nearby. Her eyes filled with the most uncontrollable fear that I’ve ever seen in a child. "Why do you want my mother?" she asked. Later, her parents told us how the family had crouched in the woods while soldiers ransacked their house in Syria. More recently they’d been chased through the woods by Turkish police. After we’d spent a few minutes talking with her parents, she returned to being a child and could not stop hugging us, and laughing, and saying "I love you so much." But I went to sleep that night remembering the terror on her face when we first asked to speak to her mother. (Lesvos, Greece)

These posts are garnering a massive amount of awareness for the plight of the Syrian people to an international audience. All of the posts show the raw terror that every refugee feels as they desperately find their way into a country that oft times treats them as hostile criminals rather than people simply searching for hope. HONY posts with brutal honesty about the situation, and as a result has garnered the attention of millions. But amidst all of this terrible reality, HONY remains hopeful with posts that remind everyone that the human spirit cannot be silenced.

“In the past four months alone, we’ve had twelve thousand refugees stop here. We know because we’ve counted the sandwiches that we’ve handed out. They show up battered and beaten. We set up this rest area along the road to hand out sandwiches, juice, and water. One night we had one thousand people here. You could see nothing but heads. We’re not professionals, just volunteers. The families break our heart the most. They show up with no money, no papers, and no hotels. Sometimes it’s raining and they have nothing but cardboard over their heads. They have nothing for their children, and we know how hard it is to raise kids even in standard conditions. Our son hasn’t seen very much of us recently. Even when we are together, the phone is always ringing and we are absent in mind. Recently he asked if we could build a big boat and send the refugees somewhere that there is no war.” (Lesvos, Greece)

I have no doubt that these newest posts will only increase the humanitarian reputation of the Humans of New York movement. Humans of New York is an amazing social media campaign that is making a difference in the world one post at a time. Follow the refugee stories and see other posts on the official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork.