Oxfam alleged prostitution cover-up

[HairyBallTheorem]

BBC article here

I read the Times article in the print version at lunch - front page lead article, plus two inside pages devoted to it, so if anyone could link with a share token this would be great.

It's about a group of men, senior in Oxfam's Haiti relief programme, having parties with prostitutes (some of whom may well have been under the age of consent). Someone blew the whistle, and the men were removed from Oxfam, but mostly through being paid off rather than sacked. The Times alleges Oxfam then systematically covered up the abuse so as not to cause ructions among the general public whose donations they rely on.

I know there have been other threads in the past, including posts from women who've worked for NGOs saying it's absolutely endemic. (About the only two names which pop up as not being involved and having decent policies against aid workers sexually abusing the vulnerable women and children they're meant to be helping are Christian Aid and MSF).

Does anyone have any thoughts on any sort of campaigning that could be done to get charities to clean up their act.

Sorry should have been clearer - it's the "cover up" bit that's alleged, not the prostitution ring, which is beyond dispute.

I've got the app, but no idea how to do a share token. I suspect that copying and pasting is frowned on...?

Why am I not surprised?

"Men using positions of power to abuse women and children"

It's become clearer and clearer to me that lefty/liberal men are just as bad as all the others.
In fact worse in some cases because they hide behind a screen of fluffy wuffy caring about environment/animals/racism and you think they're decent caring men.....then they're raping you, or beating you, or at best demonstrating unbelievable misogyny.

Men are just shits aren't they?
Fucking outrageous.

The only thing that shocks me in this, is that the men lost their jobs at all.

It’s common knowledge in a lot of developing countries that aid workers use prostitutes etc...part of the reason that they are not trusted my many.

Child abuse of the very people you are being paid to "help"

Ultimate abuse of power.

Evil cunting wankstains.

Every day I move a little bit more towards seriously hardcore radical feminism.

I can't even trust my lefty male friends anymore....recent conversations with some of them has really opened my eyes to the misogyny all around me... even from men I thought naively were "better" than that.

My utter fury knows no fucking bounds at the moment.

"My utter fury knows no fucking bounds at the moment"

AMEN

Honestly no surprise, I used to work in the sector and travelled regularly to developing countries, it was well known that some staff were doing this, I tried addressing it to no avail, very depressing

That thread the other day about being sick to the bloody back teeth of men and their entitlement and their using and abusing of women and children for their own sick kicks? Yeah, THAT. Over and over again . There's no end to it

'I can't even trust my lefty male friends anymore....recent conversations with some of them has really opened my eyes to the misogyny all around me'

Even 'decent' men, even the 'good' ones, even the 'trustworthy' ones that we share our lives and homes with - even they just don't get it. And a lot of them don't want to get it either

I expect a certain sort of person to tell me prostitutes are "empowered"! and consenting to Sex work is brilliant rah rah etc etc.

But these men. They were looking poverty in the fucking face, women they'd trained to "help". And they went over an abused the women anyway.

If there was a possibility that they were underage we can assume that they were all very young at anyway. Poor starving empowered teenagers.

Sickening.

Know what though, I'm going to subscribe to The Times. Between this and the President's club story, they are one of the few media organisations that seem to be putting at least some focus on women's issues.

I'm amazed at any organisation that thinks protecting abusive men helps their reputation. It has the exact opposite effect.

Just think how many people have donated and unknowingly supported (financially) these depraved acts.
It happens over and over again. Men in power abuse women and children, but are potrayed as saints. People know and cover it up.

I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t even suprised when I read the headline.

Now that it has been made public, it will be all over the papers for a couple of days, with the public spitting ‘how could they’, and it’ll all go quiet again. Until the next perverted ‘scandal’. It really is never ending.

But these men. They were looking poverty in the fucking face, women they'd trained to "help"

I imagine to these men, the poverty and vulnerability was part of the kick.

Bloody shocking, but not surprising. Dignified exist for abusive men, this is surely worse publicity that taking out a double page spread saying “these awful men have betrayed the charities trust. We must never let this happen again”.
Why does this happen in this day an age? Surely an enthusiastic student full of hope sure turn up and find an operational brothel, call HQ and the papers and it’s shut down in a week!
I know why that doesn’t happen. Why must every glimmer of hope be crushed.

'I imagine to these men, the poverty and vulnerability was part of the kick'

No doubt

This is like the horrors that happened with the UN staff.

I've honestly given up donating to any of the charities in the large corporate sector. That's quite easy to do when you are supporting local charities because you can do your own due diligence. But much harder when you're trying to support something international.

It's always worth looking here:

www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

Yes, I immediately thought of the UN scandal (which remains unresolved, as far as I know).

That's a useful link, Lang

This has really, really shocked me.

I feel sick to my stomach. I knew some large charities had bad reputations abroad but I genuinely didn't think this would be happening. I feel very naive now.

Fucking disgusting. Oxfam and those men.

Fuck the patriarchy.

Warning - the article below is shocking and horrible.

Article from 2012 on Kathryn Bolkovac the former police officer turned private contractor who blew the whistle on Dyncorp and the behaviour of peace keepers in Bosnia.

It's horrific. The initial abuse plus the lack of reporting even though people knew too. There was a good comment too on one of the articles that despite the description from Oxfam it shouldn't have been described as suspected underage prostitutes, but sexual abuse of children and that Oxfam should have known better than to describe it like that in the first place.

I have a times subscription but the share tokens never generate on the links for me, I'm not sure why.

It's become clearer and clearer to me that lefty/liberal men are just as bad as all the others.

It always has been the case, They've just been better at masking it. Very left-wing men, in my experience, are usually very busy making sure they're understanding the rights of numerous groups of people, some of whom do not have women's interests at heart.