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"  This past July heavy monsoons left one-fifth of Pakistan submerged in water and 6 months later the victims are still in need of food, clean water, and shelter\u2014Rachel Roy is stepping in to help. &amp;quot;The [Pakistan] tote was created in September when my 10-year-old daughter Ava had to go to a new school and was extremely nervous and feeling a bit sad. I read her a paragraph on the children of Pakistan and how they could not only not attend school, but had no homes and lost family members\u201410 million children were affected by the floods\u2014and she looked at me and said &amp;#039;What are you doing about it?&amp;#039; So I had to do something,&amp;quot; Roy tells us of the inspiration behind her newly-debuted charitable bag. Roy immediately tapped into her network of high-profile friends to shed some light on the disaster that has yet to keep headlines in America. &amp;quot;I literally only had one week to gather signatures and design the tote to make a November delivery, so I started with my Blackberry contacts,&amp;quot; she says. And when your address book contains names like Jay Z, Oprah, and Rachel Zoe, it&amp;#039;s not a bad place to start. &amp;quot;The support was overwhelming! Oprah Winfrey signed without hesitation\u2014within seconds! As did Jay [Z] and Diane [von Furstenberg]. The sign of true leaders.&amp;quot; And like the bag quotes, &amp;quot;Kindness is always fashionable,&amp;quot; but that didn&amp;#039;t mean Roy didn&amp;#039;t have to hustle a little. &amp;quot;Mr. Graydon Carter may be a favorite signature of mine. I had to interrupt a dinner with his wife to gather the signature,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I am usually not so forward, not so impolite, but when 10 million innocent children are involved it was somewhat easy for me to let the politeness go.&amp;quot; For every tote sold, Roy will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF&amp;#039;s disaster relief efforts for the victims of the floods. You can check out all of the celebrity signatures and buy the messenger-style bag at rachelroy.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/a6067/rachel-roy-debuts-chartiable-pakistan-tote/>