Oxfam is an international confederation of charitable organizations focused on the alleviation of global poverty. Tuesday, 12 January 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, causing the deaths of 160,000 people. The government of Haiti estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. Hundreds of thousands were left without shelter and emergency services were stretched to the breaking point. In the middle of all this, Oxfam was throwing parties and paying prostitutes to drop by. International development secretary, Penny Mordaunt has warned, Ministers could cut off funding for Oxfam if it cannot account for the way it handled claims of sexual misconduct by aid workers. The charity’s own investigation into the allegations led to four people being sacked and three others resigning, among them its country director, Roland van Hauwermeiren. Mordaunt said the allegations were “a complete betrayal of both the people Oxfam were there to help and also the people that sent them there to do that job.” When Haiti’s ambassador to London voiced his country’s “outcry over those serious crimes that were not reported to relevant authorities”, Oxfam scrambled to contact the Haitian embassy in Bloomsbury and arranged to meet diplomats this week. Oxfam said it did not tell the Government about the Haiti prostitute scandal in 2011 because they concluded it was not a case of exchanging “sex for aid.” (Yeah I believe that.. wink .. wink). Groups of young prostitutes were invited to homes and guesthouses paid for by the charity for sex parties, according to one source who claimed to have seen footage of an orgy with sex workers wearing Oxfam t-shirts. There are also allegations that some of the prostitutes were underage girls. The charity said it had yet to find evidence proving allegations that underage girls were involved. (Wink.. wink..)
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