Oxfam has brought down shame on its good name

NEWS about Oxfam seems to be getting worse by the minute. First we read about the absolutely appalling behaviour of its staff in Haiti, including its country director Roland van Hauwermeiren, over the use of prostitutes in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. Then it is alleged that Oxfam tried to cover this up.

And now it seems that similar allegations have emerged about his staff ’s behaviour when van Hauwermeiren was in charge in Chad.

It is impossible to overstate the disgust every decent person will feel on hearing this. For a start the countries involved were in the most dire situation when Oxfam sent its staff in and the fact that aid workers (aid workers!) thought to take advantage of their most vulnerable inhabitants at such a time almost defies belief.

Second, Oxfam has an awful lot of supporters who will have been donating money in the belief that they were helping the world’s most underprivileged people: how are they going to feel when they hear how leading lights at the charity have been behaving?

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has threatened to cut off funding from Oxfam if it cannot account for its behaviour. Good!

Oxfam has always been a blatantly political organisation, going far beyond its remit to help the unfortunate, and to that we can now add charges of gross hypocrisy and an indifference to the wellbeing of the very people it was supposed to be helping.

This from the people who are never slow to lecture the rest of us. What a terrible state of affairs this is.