Oxfam Told of Aid Workers Abusing Children in Haiti Decade Ago – Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – UK-based NGO Save the Children warned Oxfam that aid workers had been sexually abusing children in Haiti ten years ago, the Independent newspaper reported.

The newspaper learned that Oxfam’s CEO in 2008 received a report by Save the Children, which stated that children had been coerced in exchange for food and necessities.

According to the newspaper, the NGO’s research revealed abuse linked to a total of 23 security, humanitarian and peacekeeping organizations working in Haiti, Ivory Coast and Southern Sudan.

Last week, The Times reported, citing its sources, that a number of Oxfam workers had been spending time in their official Haiti residence with prostitutes. On February 11, the charity was hit with similar allegations saying that Oxfam staff had paid women for sex in Chad in 2006.

The sex scandal has sparked public outrage, primarily due to the fact that Oxfam had conducted an internal investigation into the issue and decided not to make its outcome public, letting its employees leave voluntarily in 2011. Earlier in the week, Oxfam’s Deputy Chief Executive Penny Lawrence said that she was resigning amid the scandal.