Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

“At her job, Maria Torero cares for sick human beings. At home, she lavishes love on slowly dying cats – 175 of them at last count. The 45-year-old nurse has turned her two-story, eight-room apartment into a hospice for cats with feline leukemia, scattering it with scores of feeding dishes and at least two dozen boxes litter boxes. Some have suggested she shelter healthy cats instead. “That's not my role”, she told The Associated Press. “I'm a nurse. My duty is to the cats that nobody cares about”. She said that “people don't adopt adult cats, especially if they are terminally ill”. – Franklin Briceno via Associated Press. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

A mahout rides an elephant at Tad Sae Waterfall outside Luang Prabang, Laos July 31, 2016. Protected by the United Nations cultural heritage agency UNESCO, Luang Prabang is one of the most alluring places in the region – a city that evokes old-world romance that has gained a reputation as a travellers' Shangri La. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Activists attend a parade to demand rights of gender equality to LGBT community members in Santiago, Chile, November 25, 2017. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Chinese women ride a bicycle together on a street September 10, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A man stands near bodies of his young relatives after an airstrike in the rebel held Douma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria August 22, 2016. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)

Iranian mourners cover themselves with mud during Ashoura, marking the death anniversary of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, at the city of Bijar, west of the capital Tehran, Iran, Thursday, November 14, 2013. Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints, was killed in a 7th century battle at Karbala, Iraq. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

South African surfer Andy Marr rides a wave at Dungeons offshore reef in the Atlantic Ocean outside Cape Town, South Africa, 01 September 2016. The big wave surfing season is at its peak with winter swells driven by storms in the South Atlantic breaking on the Cape's outer reefs providing good conditions. Big wave surfers are competing in the 2016 Striped Horse Challenge and Rebel Sessions big wave competitons symultaneously throughout the season. (Photo by Nic Bothma/EPA)