Oxfam

[floo]

deleted

[Nearly Sane]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

I reckon this major screw up is likely to affect donations to the charity. We have given quite generously to Oxfam over the years, but will think twice before donating again. They need to get their house in order.

What do you think 'getting their house in order' means in terms of actions?

[Nearly Sane]

Ensuring that all the money donated is used for the purpose intended.

The accusations seem to revolve the behaviour of staff not the use of money.

[Nearly Sane]

Apparently that is not entirely clear, from what I heard on the news.

It's not referred to in the link you posted

[Humph Warden Bennett]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

I reckon this major screw up is likely to affect donations to the charity. We have given quite generously to Oxfam over the years, but will think twice before donating again. They need to get their house in order.

This was all some years ago, and those concerned resigned. The admission is that some Oxfam workers used prostitutes at a villa rented by Oxfam, not that they used donated money to pay for prostitution services.

As far as I am concerned, Oxfam have acted correctly, and the matter should be considered to be closed.

[Nearly Sane]

The matter should not be closed.

What do you think is a problem about how they dealt with it?

[Nearly Sane]

I refer you to my revised post. It would appear at the very least there was a cover up.

How if there was an investigation and action taken is it a cover up?

[Humph Warden Bennett]

The matter should not be closed, especially as it was people who Oxfam was supposed to be helping who were abused in this way.

I do not consider the use of a prostitute and then paying the prostitute for services rendered to be abuse per se. Abuse would be forcing somebody to do something that they did not want to do, which is something different. As to using premises paid for by Oxfam, for illegal activities, that is a matter for the Haitian police.

[Harrowby Hall]

Could you please explain exactly what abuse took place? I have not found any reference to abuse per se only references to "staff using prostitutes".

Sex rears its head and Victorian moralistic attitudes take over.

[Robbie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

I reckon this major screw up is likely to affect donations to the charity. We have given quite generously to Oxfam over the years, but will think twice before donating again. They need to get their house in order.

I don't see how what Oxfam workers get up to privately, however unsavoury, has anything to do with the ethos of Oxfam. They didn't use donations to fund their shenanigans.  The article is scandalmongering, it's a great pity the story got out.  Oxfam do sterling work.

[floo]

Could you please explain exactly what abuse took place? I have not found any reference to abuse per se only references to "staff using prostitutes".

Sex rears its head and Victorian moralistic attitudes take over.

According to the news the women and children who prostituted themselves were very vulnerable and forced to do so in order to try to keep starvation at bay.

[Harrowby Hall]

Indeed, Robbie. And, I suppose, using the services of a prostitute is a way of getting money circulating, getting economic activity going again after the disastrous earthquake.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

According to the news the women and children who prostituted themselves were very vulnerable and forced to do so in order to try to keep starvation at bay.

If you can provide a link as to this allegation then I will take a look & may change my opinion.

[Harrowby Hall]

According to the news the women and children who prostituted themselves were very vulnerable and forced to do so in order to try to keep starvation at bay.

Thank you for replying.

In circumstances where everyone was vulnerable. None of us know how we would behave in such circumstances. The situations may not necessarily have been abusive.

I am not condoning prostitution arising from desperation, but over 100,000 people had been killed and others were dying. Half a million people were homeless. Allowing someone to buy sex from you may even have seemed desirable if it gave you some comfort, perhaps some food and some money. In addition, we don't really know what the cultural attitudes to prostitution were among the Haitian poor.

Which brings us back to Oxfam. Perhaps, as distributors of aid it would have been preferable for the charity's workers to have retained some degree of non-involvement with the personal lives of their clients. But I think that the British government's attitude towards Oxfam does seem a little strange. Presumably, being Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson may be involved in this.

[Robbie]

In any case, the workers who did avail themselves of the local hospitality in Haiti have either been sacked or resigned (despite not doing anything illegal), so one can hardly judge an organisation on the behaviour of a few members of staff out of thousands. It has all been blown up out of proportion & I sincerely hope Oxfam will not be affected because it does sterling work.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

If you can provide a link as to this allegation then I will take a look & may change my opinion.

I have just read the BBC report and it mentions "vunerable people", presumably somebody seems to think that all prostitutes are automatically "vunerable", which they are not.

If three officials from Oxfam used consenting prostitutes & paid for such services with their own money, then I don't see that anybody has been exploited. I do appreciate that to do so on premises rented by a charity would not be considered to be acceptable by some who donated to that charity, and it was correct for the persons concerned to have resigned.

That has happened. I don't see a problem.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

In any case, the workers who did avail themselves of the local hospitality in Haiti have either been sacked or resigned (despite not doing anything illegal), so one can hardly judge an organisation on the behaviour of a few members of staff out of thousands. It has all been blown up out of proportion & I sincerely hope Oxfam will not be affected because it does sterling work.

Prostitution is illegal in Haiti, but as I mentioned above, that is a matter for the local authorities.

[Robbie]

Right.  Is it illegal to offer the service or illegal to buy it, or both?
As you say, at the discretion of the local authorities.

If the Oxfam people were doing something illegal (which they may not have realised, the laws on prostitution are so vague in many countries), that was reprehensible but they were either sacked or resigned in the wake of it so I'd have thought, all over.

[Rhiannon]

Slightly off topic, my husband used to help out in an Oxfam shop. He got annoyed when he discovered that the good quality items we donated were never put on display. We can only assume they were taken by the shop workers. He got so fed up he gave up helping out there! We have not donated items to that particular charity shop since then.

They may have been bought by the volunteers. Why assume they’d been taken?

[Enki]

In any case, the workers who did avail themselves of the local hospitality in Haiti have either been sacked or resigned (despite not doing anything illegal), so one can hardly judge an organisation on the behaviour of a few members of staff out of thousands. It has all been blown up out of proportion & I sincerely hope Oxfam will not be affected because it does sterling work.

You are right in that one can hardly judge an organization by the behaviour of a few members of staff, but you are wrong to say that it wasn't illegal according to the country that they were in. It is illegal under Haitian law, as well as being against the Oxfam code of conduct and contrary to UN guidelines. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
However the offending individuals seem to have been sacked or have resigned, so, unless something else comes to light, then that should be the end of it in my opinion.

[Rhiannon]

It’s really quite appalling that aid workers paid to have sex with people in a vulnerable situation. But they were sacked, Oxfam seem to have disclosed the facts as they knew them. Maybe there needs to be a register of those sacked for exploiting clients sexually to ensure they cannot go in to work with other vulnerable people, but that’s not up to Oxfam. 

[Harrowby Hall]

I suspect things are clearer now.

The government has (a) used the word "abuse" without evidence of genuine abusive behaviour, (b) introduced the concept "safeguarding" into the discussion and (c) exhibited a Victorian disgust at the concept of sex.

It is now considering using the moral authority it thinks it has acquired to make cuts to the money it gives for overseas aid. How cynical.

I suspect that many of the people working for the charities are young and see little wrong with sexual activity with other young people. If this is so, then it is a matter of education - which is a concern for the charities employing them. Not HM government.

[floo]

Consorting with prostitutes, whether they are vulnerable or not, is DISGUSTING behaviour, people who indulge in that sort of behaviour are the lowest of the low, imo. Charity workers are bound to bring the their charity into disrepute if they get involved with prostitutes when they are supposedly bringing aid to those who need it. I am glad the Government is looking into this.

[Aruntraveller]

Consorting with prostitutes, whether they are vulnerable or not, is DISGUSTING behaviour, people who indulge in that sort of behaviour are the lowest of the low, imo. Charity workers are bound to bring the their charity into disrepute if they get involved with prostitutes when they are supposedly bringing aid to those who need it. I am glad the Government is looking into this.

Lets do the knee jerk again.

Just a lurch to the right....

[floo]

Lets do the knee jerk again.

Just a lurch to the right....

?