From Loss to Legacy: How a Fashion Business Rose From Haiti’s Rubble
By Julie Colombino-Billingham
“In telling her own story, Julie tells the story of so many whose lives were transformed by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Her clear and honest recollections put the reader at the epicenter of the most challenged and resilient culture in the western hemisphere.”
SEAN PENN, Action, Director, and Humanitarian
Inspired to help Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake of 2010, aid worker Julie Colombino-Billingham flew there intending to say for a few weeks and remained for years. Falling in love with the Haitian people, she soon realized their deepest need was for a long-term solution to the widespread poverty and lack of opportunity they faced. Slowly, by trial and error, she and her determined team of fellow volunteers and native Haitians built Deux Mains, a fair-trade fashion brand that came from nothing and is now a thriving employee-owned and -operated global business. The United Nations, Kenneth Cole, Eileen Fisher, USAID, and the Clinton Foundation are a few of the many business partners Colombino-Billingham has cultivated over the years.
Colombino-Billingham’s revolutionary approach to disaster aid provides a successful model for ending poverty, supporting education, and empowering people to succeed. This riveting memoir tells the story of her years in Haiti, and of the beauty, generosity, and strength she found there.
