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AIBU?

To be absolutely disgusted about the OXFAM revelations?

224 replies

yolofish · 11/02/2018 21:51

Forgive me if there is already another thread but I couldnt find one...

So Haiti: devastated by an earthquake. Head honchos come in - and they host a party in which young Haitian girls appeared wearing nothing but Oxfam tshirts - literally nothing else, according to today's Sunday Times.

Oxfam does amazing work of course. but gets £32m of tax payers' money year in year out - and this happened 7 years ago.

I am truly disgusted by these events.

OP posts:
Andante57 · 11/02/2018 21:52

I agree - it's very shocking.

yolofish · 11/02/2018 22:03

I actually run a charity (brain cancer). We have 3 trustees, of which I am one, we take no salaries/overheads/advertising etc. If we had less than 1/10th of these govt funds we could find a cure for glioblastoma within a year. but £32m a year for 7 years... that's a fuckload of money!!!

OP posts:
yolofish · 11/02/2018 22:04

And I could 100% guarantee that we wouldnt be spending anything on abusing young girls! (I dont want to call them prostitutes)

OP posts:
monkeymamma · 11/02/2018 22:07

I am furious about this. We donated a big sum to Oxam a few years ago and the thought that it could have funded this type of event - even without the obvious (and horrific) exploitation of underage earthquake survivors, the idea of donated money funding any sort of ‘jollies’ for (already well-remunerated) execs is disgusting. Worth mentioning that Oxfam knew about this years ago and gave the execs in question chance to quietly resign rather than sacking and disgracing them.

thestickereconomy · 11/02/2018 22:07

Yanbu. Awful.

WellAlwaysHaveParis · 11/02/2018 22:08

This is kind of unrelated, but I was massively shocked and felt really sickened by the allegations about Brendan Cox (Jo Cox’s husband). They’re allegations, yes, but they’re pretty bloody serious.

Bumshkawahwah · 11/02/2018 22:10

Sickening is exactly the right word. The fact that it happened at all...the fact that is was done by a representatives of a charity who were there to supposedly do good. Horrible :(

tiredbutFuckIt · 11/02/2018 22:11

I was surprised it took this long for the Brendan Cox stuff to come out.

LizzieSiddal · 11/02/2018 22:12

I agree with you. It’s absolutely disgraceful. And the Brendan Cox thing is also awful. It seems both were covered up at the time. Well how surprising! Angry

LizzieSiddal · 11/02/2018 22:13

Has been known for a while Tired?

WellAlwaysHaveParis · 11/02/2018 22:14

Do you believe the allegations tiredbutFuckit? I’m really disgusted. I only knew who he was after Jo Cox passed away, but since then, looked up to them both and admired them both. I’m so disgusted, for one thing, that the allegations are about events that apparently took place while he was married to Jo Cox. It’s awful. And because he’s in the public eye, his kids might read about all of this one day. It’s horrific.

windchimesabotage · 11/02/2018 22:14

Im disgusted but im just as disgusted by the government threatening to stop funding. Surely there is a better way to deal with this than by preventing further money reaching people in need?

Twofurrycats · 11/02/2018 22:14

I stopped donating to Oxfam quite a while ago for a variety of reasons. This makes me glad I stuck with my (unpopular at times) decision.

yolofish · 11/02/2018 22:20

I think it will be enormously damaging to Oxfam and they appear to have been sleepwalking into it.

EG, I would always donate to the DEC campaigns, of whch Oxfam tended to be part. Some shit hits your part of the world emergency kicks in, support seems like a good thing to do? NO fuckingway from now on unless I can1000% assess their behaviour.

OP posts:
WellAlwaysHaveParis · 11/02/2018 22:23

Some shit hits your part of the world emergency kicks in, support seems like a good thing to do? NO fuckingway from now on unless I can1000% assess their behaviour.

I understand, yolofish, but if everyone takes this attitude, wont people’s suffering after a humanitarian disaster get even worse than it already is?

bluepears · 11/02/2018 22:25

well i dont think ill be the only one never to give them another penny (apart from sadly my taxes)

Catstar123 · 11/02/2018 22:25

It’s awful. Yolo I agree about the use of the word prosititutes.

Sadly, i just think “who/which group will be next?” While I’m glad these things are coming out it’s just so sad it ever happened.

Naughtysausage · 11/02/2018 22:32

I would totally be with you here until you said that 3.2 million would give you a cure for glioblastoma in a year.
Sorry, but just not true.

123MothergotafleA · 11/02/2018 22:32

Men, eh!!! Guaranteed. Here we go AGAIN !!!
Why can't they keep themselves zipped up?

tiredbutFuckIt · 11/02/2018 22:34

I have been told about BC, it’s not exactly a secret but I cant say I personally have any experience of him so it’s hearsay really.
I thought it’s fairly well known that he left a job “under a cloud” it’s been in the Daily Fail before, so I’m not actually saying anything that’s not already been said.

AlbertaSimmons · 11/02/2018 22:39

YANBU. I’m clearly startlingly naive but I can’t get my head round it. I’ve been walking around like this Shock all day, intermittently going “but ...Oxfam” to DH.
As to BC, I stopped following him on twitter a while back when he posted some incoherent sweary rant about something minor that made me raise my eyebrows and think “oh, didn’t have you for a c*Hmm.

LizzieSiddal · 11/02/2018 22:40

“Why can’t they keep themselves zipped up”

I agree with this so much! Why do so many men put their sexual desires before ANYTHING or ANYONE else?

It’s 2018 and it’s so bloody depressing!

WellAlwaysHaveParis · 11/02/2018 22:44

As to BC, I stopped following him on twitter a while back when he posted some incoherent sweary rant about something minor that made me raise my eyebrows and think “oh, didn’t have you for a c*”

What was it about, Alberta? Also, I do feel a bit ashamed for saying this, but I just want to say that I’ve felt for a while that he seems (to me at least) to have quite a high opinion of himself, and that made me respect him a bit less.

giraffesatthezoo · 11/02/2018 23:06

I work in the sector (have never worked in Oxfam) and it makes me sad when people say they'll stop donating to charity because of things like this.

It's bloody awful, don't get me wrong, but as far as I can tell the situation seems to be Oxfam heard rumours of what had happened, had an investigation and got rid of the staff involved.

90% of people working in the charity sector are committed people, who could make more money elsewhere and are motivated and dedicated by what they do. 5% are a waste of space in one way or another, and some are attracted to it because it offers access to vulnerable people.

People who want to abuse women and children become police officers, priests, teachers, etc etc. They purposefully put themselves in positions of power over others. And all we can do is create a culture where when people around them realise, allegations are investigated and action is taken. I've only read one article about this, but it seems all involved lost their jobs, DFID were informed. I am guessing there wasn't enough evidence to press criminal charges, or it wasn't possible in Haiti.

I completely agree it's shocking. I worked overseas in a developing country and there were foreign ex-pats working for other aid agencies (not British) who were rumoured to use prostitutes. It's disgusting, and an abuse of power. It doesn't discount all the good work done by the organisation, especially if their own procedures caught this and stopped it. And it absolutely isn't the case that small local charities have better governance- I've worked for both, and it depends on the charity rather than the size, but larger ones are required to have a greater amount of oversight generally speaking.

The best thing people can do is ask the charities they support about their governance, read the policies, look at the external audits, see what guidelines they sign up to. External pressure on these points raises standards and is key.

giraffesatthezoo · 11/02/2018 23:06

I work in the sector (have never worked in Oxfam) and it makes me sad when people say they'll stop donating to charity because of things like this.

It's bloody awful, don't get me wrong, but as far as I can tell the situation seems to be Oxfam heard rumours of what had happened, had an investigation and got rid of the staff involved.

90% of people working in the charity sector are committed people, who could make more money elsewhere and are motivated and dedicated by what they do. 5% are a waste of space in one way or another, and some are attracted to it because it offers access to vulnerable people.

People who want to abuse women and children become police officers, priests, teachers, etc etc. They purposefully put themselves in positions of power over others. And all we can do is create a culture where when people around them realise, allegations are investigated and action is taken. I've only read one article about this, but it seems all involved lost their jobs, DFID were informed. I am guessing there wasn't enough evidence to press criminal charges, or it wasn't possible in Haiti.

I completely agree it's shocking. I worked overseas in a developing country and there were foreign ex-pats working for other aid agencies (not British) who were rumoured to use prostitutes. It's disgusting, and an abuse of power. It doesn't discount all the good work done by the organisation, especially if their own procedures caught this and stopped it. And it absolutely isn't the case that small local charities have better governance- I've worked for both, and it depends on the charity rather than the size, but larger ones are required to have a greater amount of oversight generally speaking.

The best thing people can do is ask the charities they support about their governance, read the policies, look at the external audits, see what guidelines they sign up to. External pressure on these points raises standards and is key.

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