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”.
Actor George Clooney from the film “Ides Of March” arrives at the Hotel Excelsior during the 68th Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2011 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
In this photo submitted by the Washington Post tilted “The Moment Time Stopped”, survivors piled bodies of the dead outside for weeks after earthquake on January 14, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in 2010, and the Haitian government has said more than 300,000 people were killed. The exact toll is unknown because there was no systematic effort to count bodies among the chaos and destruction. (Photo by Carol Guzy/AP Photo/The Washington Post)
In this February 2, 2015 photo, tourists jump as they pose for a picture, after disembarking from the Ocean Nova cruise ship, on King George Island, Antarctica. This tourist season, which runs November through March, more than 37,000 visitors are expected to walk on the coldest continent on Earth, about 10 percent more than the year before. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)
A participant in the Crazy Races extreme sports game competes in the cross-country obstacle race in Ufa, Russia on September 21, 2015. (Photo by TASS/Barcroft Media)
A devotee holds incense sticks while celebrating the Sindoor Jatra Festival on April 15, 2015 in Thimi, Nepal. Sindoor Jatra Festival is celebrated each year in Thimi, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, to welcome the Nepali New Year and celebrate the coming of spring. During the Festival, devotees are smeared with vermillion powder and 30 chariots containing the images of several gods and goddesses are carrying by the devotees around the town, while others sing, dance and play musical instruments. (Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images)
Two robotic legged squad support system (LS3) machines by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency follow a technician during a demonstration at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, on September 10, 2012. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mallory S. VanderSchans via The Atlantic)