Oxfam Sex Scandal in Haiti

wuarhat

I am a out of touch hippie.
Nov 13, 2006
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I don't get it. They paid prostitutes for sex? Isn't that what the prostitutes wanted them to do? It's not like the US Secret Service agents who cheated prostitutes out of their pay, and that blew over in a what seems like a week now. There must be more to it than what the first five or six paragraphs tell us. If so my bad, but I read that far and it just sounds like a silly sob story to me.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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I don't get it. They paid prostitutes for sex? Isn't that what the prostitutes wanted them to do? It's not like the US Secret Service agents who cheated prostitutes out of their pay, and that blew over in a what seems like a week now. There must be more to it than what the first five or six paragraphs tell us. If so my bad, but I read that far and it just sounds like a silly sob story to me.

you will get no argument from me...i mean, what is so revolutionary about a guy paying a woman for sex?

are these Oxfam guys some special creatures who do not do what mere mortals have been known to do?
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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dr1.com
I don't get it. They paid prostitutes for sex? Isn't that what the prostitutes wanted them to do? It's not like the US Secret Service agents who cheated prostitutes out of their pay, and that blew over in a what seems like a week now. There must be more to it than what the first five or six paragraphs tell us. If so my bad, but I read that far and it just sounds like a silly sob story to me.

Paying using charity money to pay for sex and exploiting under aged prostitutes. They were in the country to help these people not exploit them. If it was their own money and the prostitutes were of the proper age there wouldnt be an issue, or certainly not much.
 

Uzin

Bronze
Oct 26, 2005
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I think being in position of power somewhat, giving and distributing help, money and other stuff, is the problem. They might have been getting special discounted rate or favors from the prostitutes etc. - that p1sses off a lot of guys and make a lot of girls mad.... lol , No really... !!!? lol
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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Or it could be coming from the other direction........

Women wanting to move up the relief line to get help for their families

wouldn't be a first

That old saying -
Fastest way to a Man's Heart is Through his Stomach

might be just that ---- an old saying
depending on what country you're in
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Yes, it was completely unacceptable. They were exploiting vulnerable women - no proof there were minors but it is implied - when on the payroll and in representation of an organisation that explicitly campaigns against all types of injustice.

Insider info: Colleagues blew the whistle but were initially brushed aside until someone went directly to the top at head office. The country director admitted to paying women for sex but was not involved in the "sex parties". These were three other workers living in apartments rented by the organisation (not the CD's "villa") and the whistleblowers were colleagues living in the same building who reported it when they saw what was going on.

At the time the CD's departure (he was allowed to resign) and the firing of the other three made the news but the reasons were described as "gross misconduct" which most took to be "fraud" - which was bad enough. The management must have hoped it would stay at that but in the #metoo climate it was just a matter of time.

Their clumsy damage limitation attempt is tantamount to a cover up and it enrages me that the reputation of an organisation and its committed and highly ethical workers and volunteers are being dragged down by the actions of a few sleazebags and incompetents. Also the way this is being used by people only too happy to slam the international humanitarian sector as a whole.

Without making excuses, I got the impression that they were lowering their standards when recruiting people for difficult-to-fill postings in an unprecedented, fast-moving emergency situation. I turned down a job offer post-earthquake because I did not think I was qualified.
 

william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
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Definitely-
The reaction/response to the problem indicates deeper issues are at work - or have been at work - for quite awhile.

Bad PR...and charities like OXFAM rely on their PR.
One of their biggest assets
 

drstock

Silver
Oct 29, 2010
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To me this is no news at all. There are prostitutes who make themselves available to foreigners in Haiti? That's hardly news - half the prostitutes in the DR come from Haiti. The girls who do this do so with the full knowledge of boyfriends, husbands and often families. The girls are not exploited, they are delighted to earn the money. There is terrible unemployment in Haiti and this is one way a girl can earn money to feed the inevitable children. And in the articles I have read, nowhere do I see that there is any evidence of underage girls being involved - just the word that it is a possibility. Hardly enough to call anyone guilty.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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To me this is no news at all. There are prostitutes who make themselves available to foreigners in Haiti? That's hardly news - half the prostitutes in the DR come from Haiti. The girls who do this do so with the full knowledge of boyfriends, husbands and often families. The girls are not exploited, they are delighted to earn the money. There is terrible unemployment in Haiti and this is one way a girl can earn money to feed the inevitable children. And in the articles I have read, nowhere do I see that there is any evidence of underage girls being involved - just the word that it is a possibility. Hardly enough to call anyone guilty.

i am in full agreement with you. i see no evidence whatsoever of either underage girls, or refusal to pay the agreeed price, and stiffing the women...oops..
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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It's still not acceptable for people working for an organisation that explicitly condemns sexual exploitation to engage in this behaviour. There is a code of conduct that they sign and they are in breach of it.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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It's still not acceptable for people working for an organisation that explicitly condemns sexual exploitation to engage in this behaviour. There is a code of conduct that they sign and they are in breach of it.

Chiri, i realize that we are on opposite sides of the sexual divide, so i want to tread lightly here...do you think that a guy going to Sosua and picking up a chica is exploiting her?
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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Chiri, i realize that we are on opposite sides of the sexual divide, so i want to tread lightly here...do you think that a guy going to Sosua and picking up a chica is exploiting her?
That is a separate argument. In this case the punters did not go to a country at their own expense like tourists. They were on the payroll, in representation of, and using premises paid for by an organisation whose ethical code of conduct explicitly forbids this behaviour, and which actively campaigns against it.
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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That is a separate argument. In this case the punters did not go to a country at their own expense like tourists. They were on the payroll, in representation of, and using premises paid for by an organisation whose ethical code of conduct explicitly forbids this behaviour, and which actively campaigns against it.

you do have a point, insofar as the intent and charter of Oxfam is concerned..
 

wuarhat

I am a out of touch hippie.
Nov 13, 2006
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The girls are not exploited, they are delighted to earn the money. There is terrible unemployment in Haiti and this is one way a girl can earn money to feed the inevitable children.

That prostitution is their only opportunity is the real scandal and it has very little to do with OXFAM.

Paying using charity money to pay for sex and exploiting under aged prostitutes.

Are these facts or just something you are imagining into the story? If they are facts, then yes it would be more serious, but I would expect that to be in the headline not buried beyond where the article has lost my interest. Even if they were considered possibilities they should be mentioned earlier in the article.

It's still not acceptable for people working for an organisation that explicitly condemns sexual exploitation to engage in this behaviour. There is a code of conduct that they sign and they are in breach of it.

Agreed, and the perpetrators were fired for their transgressions.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
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A do-gooder NGO with corrupt employees? Must be a first...
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Everyone I know is appalled and enraged. Seven decades of excellent work, tens of thousands of committed workers and volunteers being dragged down by a few scumbags.