I will be writing another check for Oxfam America, though I am as upset as anyone at the news that in the wake of the Earthquake in Haiti in 2010, at least a few of Oxfam's employees paid prostitutes for sex, holding a "sex orgy" in the villa (if you will) of the country director. Apparently in 2011, Oxfam did an internal investigation and sacked several of the employees and others quit in the wake of the report. I have read conflicting things about whether or not at least one of those fired got a positive reference when he went to work for another aid agency.
One of the men allowed to resign without disciplinary action was Oxfam’s country director in Haiti, Roland van Hauwermeiren, who, according to the report, admitted using prostitutes at the villa rented for him by Oxfam with charitable funds. Prostitution is illegal in Haiti.
Oxfam informed the charity regulator about the broad nature of the allegations but without specific detail and failed to provide the watchdog with a final report.
It also emerged that one individual embroiled in the allegations went on to work at another leading aid charity, which was not told of his involvement. A spokeswoman for Mercy Corps said: “An individual allegedly involved in this situation worked for us from July 2015 to November 2016. As part of our normal hiring practice, we conducted reference checks and received positive references from his previous employers, including Oxfam.”
Abby Maxam, the current president of Oxfam America has posted a piece on it today.
And, ashamed though I am of the behavior of these former staff, I am also proud that we have learned from how we responded in 2011 and have put better practices in place. These measures help Oxfam better prevent abuse, sexual harassment, and exploitation from happening. Our response in 2011 clearly did not meet the standards that we have today. We could have done more including, but not limited to, sharing more information in our public communications.
When the Haiti allegations surfaced, Oxfam Great Britain responded quickly. The aim of their investigation was to root out and take action against those involved. At the time, Oxfam Great Britain, then the managing affiliate in Haiti, announced to the media both the investigation and the action taken as a result. Oxfam Trustees, the Charity Commission and DFID, as well as other major donors of our Haiti work including the EU, WHO, and UN agencies, were kept informed of the investigation and its outcome. Four members of staff were dismissed and three, including the Country Director, resigned before the end of the investigation. The Country Director accepted responsibility for his actions and the actions that occurred on his watch.
And yet this was not enough. The behavior of the leadership and staff identified in the incident in Haiti in 2011 was and is intolerable, deeply reprehensible and unacceptable. We honor those who came forward at that time to bring the issues to light, and we acknowledge the pain suffered by those who were victims of these shameful acts. Globally and at Oxfam America, we continue to have zero tolerance for abuse of people in any form and we offer our support to victims of these egregious violations of our principles, values, and what we hold dear and believe.
Since this incident, Oxfam has established a dedicated Safeguarding Task Force, co-led by Oxfam’s global Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima and me, and mechanisms are in place across Oxfam for reporting any cases of misconduct. These steps are among others designed to protect staff, partners, and those we serve from any potential misconduct.
I think transparency at the time, full public disclosure, would have prevented this from being as big a scandal now as it, no doubt, is, though I'm sure at the time part of the decision to handle it internally probably considered the damage to their work that having a scandal then would have been, then. I am not someone who has worked in that kind of group so I don't know enough to know which would have been the less bad option but it's clear what they might have avoided then, they've got now.
Yesterday I pointed out that in a organization as huge as the Catholic church it was inevitable that there would be sexual sins and crimes committed by someone or other with some kind of official status in the Catholic church, that's as inevitable in any large group that is comprised of fallible human beings subject to evil inclinations and temptations. It'st true of schools, the foster system, hospitals, sports, medicine, the military, the financial system, etc. I doubt there have been many even relatively small groups that have totally avoided the risk of this happening. The alternative to supporting none of them is to face the fact that this is one of the facts of life. Holding them to very high standards isn't unreasonable, demanding they be as pure as human beings are never going to be is hypocritical and ridiculous. It serves no good purpose.
Just as with the Catholic church, Oxfam and every other group that has ever tried to do good needs to have as much transparency as possible about these incidents while handing just as much information on a confidential basis as is necessary to find out what happened before making it public. A demand for instant exposure of all accusations risks doing injustice to anyone who is falsely accused - and not infrequently people who are making accusations who might be injured by exposure as victims, something necessary to take into account when it's people who are sexually abused or exploited. But when there are accusations or evidence of crimes, those have to be disclosed to a responsible civil authority if one exists. In countries where Oxfam and other aid agencies operate, the civil authorities often are not responsible, sometimes they're everything up to totally corrupt. So making a hard and fast rule that might make sense in Britain or the United States for all countries would probably cause more harm than good. Americans and Europeans who pretend otherwise aren't going to do much to improve things.
Yes, I am going to make a donation to Oxfam America today with my eyes open to this problem. They have been unusually transparent in their use of money donated to them and they have a good record of delivering aid. I don't think I'm sponsoring perfection when I do it. I don't know how to send angels a check.
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