"It's not as if we murdered babies in their cots" - Oxfam

I am an Oxfam volunteer. I will still be an Oxfam volunteer next week because the 0.01% of people who are sexual predators shouldn't be allowed to destroy the good work of the 99.9%.

I don't believe there was a cover-up. The people involved were sacked or resigned. Legally, Oxfam could not pass on details of alleged wrongdoing to other agencies. There is NO evidence one way or the other about the age of the women involved - lots of speculation that they were underage but nobody knows. It was not taken to the police at the time because Haiti did not have a functioning police force. UK police could not get involved as it was non-UK citizens involved in something which happened outside the UK. Oxfam did NOT give them references - one French charity received a statement from Oxfam saying along the lines of "Mr X was employed by us from Y date to Z date" - that's a statement of fact, not a reference. The sacked people gave each other references, or gave personal references as ex-colleagues which is different. In many areas of the world when sexual assault is reported it's the woman who gets questioned and hauled into the police station, not the man.

Nobody within Oxfam is making excuses for what these men did as even if it wasn't rape, it was abuse of power. The charity has strong safeguarding and whistle blowing policies - there's a helpline poster in all stores with the regional HR manager's contact details for anyone to raise issues with, in confidience.

I didn't read Mark Goldring's interview but there does seem to be a sector of the media piling in to give all charities a good kicking. The bosses earn too much, none of the money goes to good causes, the shops are overpriced, the organisations are too political / not political enough, Oxfam is anti-Israeli, why are we funding developing countries anyway, charity begins and home, pigs with their snouts in the trough. All the same cliches which are always trotted out by people who don't give to charity and think that big charities shouldn't have any overheads whatsoever and should pay their CHief Exec minimum wage. And also failing to recognise that no organisation can EVER guarantee that there will be no sexual predators working for them as that's impossible. All they can do is to have robust policies to deal with it when it's reported.

Oxfam does hugely valuable work educating women and girls all over the world and improving basic conditions of sanitation and health. You are kidding yourselves if you think Oxfam is somehow intrinsically "worse" than any of the other big aid charities. I have found it a hugely supportive and tolerant place, accepting of people at all stages of their lives, people with disabilities and full of good, honest and downright decent people.

You can't be serious Tanith. How on earth do you figure his comment has been taken out of context?? Do you agree with him that we should all just calm down because the rape of women and children isn't something to get upset about??

“I also think the Oxfam Chairman has a point. A lot of this is being driven by an anti aid agenda. Unfortunately the press won’t stop now until a lot of these charities are driven into the ground. Who benefits then?”

I, too, think the timing and frenzy of all this is highly suspect.
This comment of the CEO’s has been taken out of context and was indeed aimed at the media’s coverage.

It was just a few weeks ago that the Government was talking about cutting back foreign aid to pay for Brexit and the NHS. Suddenly, there are scandals with the foreign aid organisations. Surprise, surprise!

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/905201/foreign-aid-uk-india-how-much-Penny-Mordaunt

Let me reassure you also that there will be many many men out there that totally agree with this cockwipe. So many men think that women's suffering is just a natural consequence of the world and that rape is just one of those things. They will genuinely believe that because some people benefited from Oxfam's involvement in Haiti, the women who were raped are essentially irrelevant - we can't lose sleep over such an insignificant thing can we? Any woman out there who doubts the need for feminism should have her doubts firmly extinguished by this blatant show of misogyny from one of the 'good guys.'

It is also notable that the one person to resign over this is the deputy chief executive - a woman.

I think it's ridiculous how shocked people are by this.

Feminists have been saying for soo incredibly long that this is how men think. And we're branded as man-haters. Why is this a surprise?? This is how men behave, all the time.

What woman hasn't worked with or known a man who has some sort of power and who acts like a total arsehole, then when called on it has a pathetic wounded puppy act where he makes himself out to be the victim? Fuck sake, when we talk about the millions of women raped every year, how many men (and often women too) are lining up to say 'not all men' and to claim that women are so horrible giving men such hurty feelings? This is just a logical extension of that attitude - men believe that as long as they themselves are not 'murdering babies in cots' they have no responsibility whatsoever for what happens to women, even women they are being paid enormous amounts of money to help and protect. Not their problem.

As an aside, it's worth stopping and thinking about the concept of charity for a moment and how fucked up it is. Charity is necessary in a world where there is plenty for everyone but some people are routinely denied what they need. For charities to exist, inequality must exist, the two go hand in hand. And the people who work for charities love the sense of power they have over their subordinates beneficiaries. So many of them are narcissists who like the idea of being heroes but when it comes down to it are only out to make themselves feel good. Like this ridiculous waste of skin CEO fuckwit.

I can't see how he will stay after this. If it wasn't despicable enough before, this has to add insult to injury. He cannot come back.

Why take out a full page 'We are so sorry' ad if you then make those disgusting comments to show your true colours? It reveals the disengenious nature.

Those dozens of press officers must want to leave in droves now.

I was reading how the Eavis family is sticking by Oxfam though.

None of this is new. This CNN report is 10 years old- although it is Save the Children, not Oxfam.

edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/27/charity.aidworkers/index.html

Didn't we discuss 2/3 years ago a report / article defending the rights of overseas aid workers to have sex with the locals?

Upabitlate I guess having power over vulnerable people is what attracts abusive people to these roles.

They also have an in. The power they have cannot be overstated. They have access to food, shelter, money, they are there with big signs saying "charity", they are there to help, they are supposed to be nice, good, kind. They are not supposed to offer the material goods they have which are supposed to be distributed in return for sex - but this happens a lot in various parts of the world.

"Are we being told that child sexual abuse is an inevitable side effect of aid? And that we should accept this?"

Certainly, this has been the way it is for a long time and the agencies involved seem to have little interest in addressing this.

Thing is if bunsiness men go abroad and rape children that is bad enough
These men are there to help though, using our donations.

Oxfam can get fucked. And all the others involved in this which I am willing to bet is most of them.

Maybe he thinks that when it comes to aid work:

men need to be helped to rebuild, and with food and stuff
women and girls well we all know what they're like, a good dicking is what they need to sort them out

or maybe his people were paying for sex with men as well? If that came out, that they had paid for sex with men and possibly boys in haiti, would he be so cavalier, so utterly unable to understand why this would make anyone upset & angry?

Donations made in good faith have been used to pay for the sexual abuse of children.

And when people point out that this is not OK, they are accused of an 'anti aid agenda'

Are we being told that child sexual abuse is an inevitable side effect of aid? And that we should accept this?

Given the way aid agencies are behaving in Haiti atm I'm not willing to donate. They seem to have forgotten the 'teach a man to fish' attitude and see themselves as income generators.

We give to local charities run by local people now.

I feel sorry for those people who work for these charities that genuinely want to help. It must be deeply frustrating for them to see this happening.

Wow! What an incredibly misjudged comment. He really doesn't get it at all, does he?!

I'd be surprised if he is able to hold on to his job after this. If Oxfam don't boot him out, they're surely finished?

there wsa that young man recently who used working for aid organisations as a cover to rape large numbers of children.

Different situation BUT these agencies need to get to grips with sexual exploitation.

I saw a picture of a sign up in a country for aid workers reminding them not to have sex with under 18s????!!!

There are also the times where no money changes hands and the "relationship" is not described as prostitution but is still akin, sexual exploitation.

NGOs need to not be interacting sexually with the people they have been sent to help, under any circumstances. Is the bottom line. That should be the rule.

By Oxfam's standards Jimmy Savile was a good man: he raised a lot of money for charity and (probably) didn't murder any babies in their cots.

In The Times, I saw that the CEO of Oxfam, Mark Goldring, last year was paid £127,000 LassWiADelicateAir. I was struck by how modest it was, in relative terms.

On NGOs

There have been widespread stories of sexual explotation for a long time.

One I remember in particular was abuses by UN peacekeepers which were horrendous and never IIRC really addressed.

These organisations present a fantastic opportunity for predators. And I suppose for entitled men who see nothing wrong with buying "cheap prostitutes" in countries which have experienced disaster.

I will eat my hat if none of them were underage - of course we will never find out.

When this came up with the UN, someone suggested that given the breadth of the problem and the inability of the organisations to bother doing anything about it, maybe all peackeepers should be women. Can't imagine it would happen. But. If all the people on the ground in these organisations were female, how much rape would we see? I'm willing to guess not much.

Their 'fun' reps were out in my town this week. Cynically, I think, to see if our backwater was aware of the scandal and to measure public opinion.
Yes, Oxfam we are aware and don't like it.

He thinks the opportunity to "have sex" (rape, but he won't see it that way) with local women is a reward for all the "good work" their people do. There are lots of men in aid work, the military etc who think that way.

Well that's a Ratners moment if ever I saw one.

Highlights from my rant at DH

• Anti aid agenda? WTF? The idea that people might be genuinely upset at the thought of men going to countries that have experienced catastrophes and sexually exploiting the people (women and children that we've heard about so far) who are affected? He doesn't think that people could possibly be actually upset about that, he is looking for a different reason. Shows what he thinks about women and girls
• So, he doesn''t really see women and children as people. Who is he trying to help with his charity?

I donate to charity every month, 4 of them. Picked one each for one each of the family. Anto aid poeple stirring my arse. But he literally can't understand that anyone would genuinely believe this is bad! WTF x 1000000000000.

For anyone not wanting to give to these corporate aid entities any longer but still wanting to donate to developing world causes, this is a good list of orgs that do good work and make the absolute most of your donations:

www.givingwhatwecan.org/giving-recommendations/

I seriously wouldn't give to any of the big players. They're all implicated one way or another.

Thanks all for the msf info, will read up on it

...banker level salaries....*

Those are not banker level salaries by a mile. The salaries in question for senior executives of a huge multi- national organisation with the level of income of Oxfam are not outrageous. Chief Executives of local authorities get more.

It isn't objectionable to pay salaries at that level if the recclients are bringing commercial skills which benefit the charity.

I read it as them saying that they're doing good for men and boys (ie actual people) so who cares if a few women and girls are collateral damage? The rape is a bonus that they were happy to offer their workers and now nasty people have gone and ruined their nice little arrangement for them.

Shades of Strauss-Kahn in the way this man talks. Men like this think that having women to rape is a perk that men are entitled to because they work so hard for the good of the world.