Helping Hearts lends helping hand

Three doctors, three hours, 58 cats and dogs — and one sick guinea pig: Ottawa Animal Hospital’s annual Helping Hearts Clinic saw no let-up in the need for veterinary care for low-income families this year.

Some people had to be turned away, officials said, because there just wasn’t room or time to care for them all.

“The clients who come in and qualify for these services are extremely grateful and these pets would not be receiving this care if it weren’t for this clinic,” said Dr. Wendy Swift.

As people hit economic hardship, veterinary care is usually one of the first things to be shelved. Vendors donated heart worm preventative medicine, flea and tick treatments, vaccines and tests. The clinic’s doctors and staff donated their time Saturday morning.

Furry clients received everything from normal check-ups and vaccines to more intensive care. The preventative vaccines also help staunch the spread of disease to other animals and even humans, Swift said.

“We have the ones who love us and the ones who don’t particularly want to be here,” she said.

Michelle Wilson and Derek Clay brought in Sasha, a 5-month old Australian shepherd-dingo mix, and a pair of black cats who can only be told apart by the color of their collars — Imoja and Josephine.

Clay is a disabled veteran, and Wilson works periodically through employment agencies.

“We’re living on a very limited income,” she said. “We’d really have to do some real hard work with our budget (to afford veterinary care).”

Having the animals around is “a really big deal” when it comes to Clay’s therapy, Wilson said. Just caring for them helps, and they provide mental stimulation and help him keep active.

Ottawa Animal Hospital also has an “angel fund,” which raises money year-round for big-expense procedures clients might not be able to afford. Donations to the angel fund can be sent to either Ottawa Animal Hospital location: 620 Butternut Drive or 2691 120th Ave.

Polaris Project opened a Newark office in 2005 and launched a client services program in 2010. Since then, Polaris has helped 143 victims in New Jersey: 107 of sex trafficking, 34 of labor trafficking, and two of both sex and labor trafficking, said Kate Keisel, the director of Polaris Project New Jersey. A recent grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will allow the organization to enhance coordination between local, state and federal agencies in order to provide more services to victims of trafficking in northern and central New Jersey.

Polaris, like the city where it is located, is an important transfer point for women traveling between fearful captivity and freedom. One woman who managed to escape from labor traffickers after being held against her will for one year spoke about her experience during a visit to the Newark office. She’s still afraid to give her name. Her captors may be imprisoned, but she’s not taking any chances. Call her Maria.

Maria, who is from a small town in the Philippines, looks like any other woman you might see waiting for a commuter bus on a weekday morning, or waiting to check out purchases on a supermarket line. She’s dressed stylishly, but not flamboyantly. She looks as if she could be someone’s mother — which she is.

Maria’s harrowing descent into the world of trafficking began innocently enough.
One day she saw an ad in her local newspaper: A hotel in the United States was hiring for office work in Florida and Arizona. Maria and her husband struggled to raise their three children on a limited income, so she leaped at the opportunity. She got a work visa at the U.S. Embassy and arrived in the United States at the end of 2006 ready to work. She was guaranteed 40 hours a week and a shuttle bus to work. “It was very specific,” she recalled. Her fear is such that she won’t say if it was Florida or Arizona where she first landed.

“When we arrived, it was the slow season and we only had two days a week of work,” she said. Money was deducted from her paycheck for housing and travel. Housing was shared with other women, many of whom started working in a nursing home to make ends meet and have something to send home. When the hotel contract was up, the workers were instructed to go home and reapply again — not an easy thing to do for workers who were not making the money they had been promised.

Maria found another employment agency and paid a $100 fee. When she arrived to start work at the new job, she found 12 other hopeful workers there — all thinking they had found a legitimate employer who would provide decent temporary housing for them as well. Instead, the nightmare began. “When we arrived, they dumped us in one apartment. I knew something was wrong, but I had no money.”

Frightened, she attempted to wait them out, refusing to take the hotel housekeeping jobs they offered. “I told them, ‘This is not the job you promised.’?” After two months, they threatened her family with harm if she attempted to leave. Others who didn’t have work visas as she did were threatened with deportation. They comforted each other as best they could.