Fashion Designer Rachel Roy struck a deal with Haitian President Michel Martelly to protect women in the tent cities from physical and sexual abuse.
During Rachel’s trip to Port-Au-Prince last week to explore business opportunities, sources say Roy extracted a promise from President Michel Martelly to protect the women being abused in the tent cities that sprang up after the country’s devastating January 2010 earthquake.
And one insider says Roy is already planning a return trip “to meet with President Martelly again and take him up on the offer of being a voice for those women.”
Last Wednesday, Rachel Roy flew to Port-Au-Prince with Martha Stewart to network with local craftspeople to find products that the two businesswomen could develop and sell as part of their Macy’s collections.
According to one source familiar with the meeting, the Haitian leader told the group he wants “investment, not charity for his country,” and jokingly issued a “presidential order” that the group could not leave Haiti unless they promised to return.
That’s when, another insider says, Rachel Roy told Martelly: “The only way I will come back is if your women and children are as safe when I am gone as they are when I am here with them.”
Our first source says President Martelly “pledged his cooperation on this issue” and asked Roy if she “would speak out about it.”
Our second insider says Rachel Roy is already planning a follow-up trip to do just that.
