"I say thank you for everything you have done for me because God has sent me on a road that has changed my life. Today I say thank you because I feel I have changed completely….”

Veronica * has a story that begins not that differently from many girls in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: Haiti. Her story, while weaved with trials and pain, has been changed forever, by the love of Christ and the love of a house that welcomed her with open arms.

Jasper House Haiti is a place of light and love in the midst darkness.

In a culture that doesn’t value women, it was easy for most to overlook the ongoing issue of rape in the country.

"When you have been raped, it’s as though you’re shunned from society: you shouldn’t study; you shouldn’t go to the hospital; you should simply stay in a corner. Being raped, it makes you... a person without rights, a person rejected from society and now, in the neighbourhood I live in, it’s as though I am raped every day because every day someone reminds me that I’ve been raped and that I am nothing. That I should put myself in a corner, that I shouldn’t speak, I should say nothing." - Rosa, a young Haitian woman who was raped at age 15 and again at age 20. (Amnesty International, 2008a)

Rape was not legally considered a crime until 2005, making it easy for rapists to get away with the heinous act by marrying their victim.

The heartbreaking reality is being fought now, as the Jasper House seeks to rescue, educate, and enrich Haitian women, showing them their true value.

Maria Atkinson, founder and CEO of Jasper House, moved to Haiti in 2013, working as a photojournalist for various organizations. Seeing the need women had, she knew she had to do something to help.

“The idea for Jasper House came from research and discovery I had made about the massive amount of young women in Haiti who find themselves in the bonds of prostitution or sexual abuse and exploitation,” Maria said. “Over the course of my nearly three years in Haiti, I have seen a lot of organizations who have good intentions, but end up causing a lot more harm than good. I wanted to design a program that would not merely “rescue” women out of vulnerable situations, but would provide them a whole-person, holistic care program that reached the mind, soul and body.”

The Jasper House is seeking to not only provide a safe place for women, but to help these women change their lives completely.

“This is accomplished through counseling and therapy with a licensed psychologist twice a month, in-house literacy and basic elementary education courses with our on-site professor, and job training with jewelry making and sewing in which items are handcrafted to be sold and exported with our social business.”

Opening in September 2015, Jasper House Haiti has already seen eleven women come through their doors, all getting to experience love and healing. These women are also getting to discover that their value is worth more than rubies… or in this case jasper.

“When I was beginning to plan and pray about starting a women’s home of this nature, I wanted a name that had deep meaning and spiritual significance,” Maria said. “I found the verse in Revelation 21:11 - "having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” I was immediately taken by the word jasper and did further research into its meaning and origin. “

“I found that it traces back to a word that means, “to polish,” and between that definition and the scripture, I knew God had named our organization,” Maria said. “Plus, jasper is a super beautiful stone and a rather unique name.”

Unique, beautiful, precious…all these words are fitting for the women that Jasper House Haiti sees. Those words perfectly describe the women that walk the streets in Haiti; and not just Haiti, but everywhere. The message of Jasper House is powerful because it doesn’t just apply to women in Haiti, but women all over the globe who have lost sight of their value.

Women have forgotten that they are priceless.

Jasper House Haiti has made it it’s goal to remind the women that walk through their doors of their worth and show them that they are not defined by their culture’s definition of them, but rather that they are strong, beautiful, powerful women who can do anything. Their past does not define them but they can define their future.

“The mission statement of Jasper House Haiti is “turning oppression, tragedy, and misfortune into opportunities for empowerment and renewal for young women in Haiti.”

Darkness has the ability to consume a lot of things. This world is full of it and sometimes it can be hard to see the good. Jasper House Haiti, in the midst of a country that sees a woman less as a person and more as an object, has become a beacon of light that can outshine any darkness.

With the love of Christ, these women are brought out of the darkness and into the light.

Jasper House is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization registered in Oklahoma. If you’d like to help, the most beneficial way is to give.

“[The] donations go to providing jobs, growing our programs, and giving us the ability to serve more women,” Maria said. “When you give to Jasper House, you are truly becoming a part of a movement that is directly changing lives.”

If you’d like to donate you can click on the link HERE.

*Her name was changed for safety and privacy reasons. You can pray for Veronica though, and all the women at Jasper House Haiti. You may not know their real names but the Lord certainly does.

All photos are courtesy of Melissa Marshall. For more of her photography you can go to: http://www.melissamarshall.co.

For more information about Jasper House Haiti, you can visit their website here: http://www.jasperhousehaiti.org