For well over a year my dd was working for an NGO in post-earthquake Haiti, when the ‘abuse’ was going on. I have used inverted commas because she was quite convinced that what it virtually always amounted to, was the use of adult prostitutes, which she said were ‘everywhere’ and were only too keen to get the money. Even before the earthquake, unemployment (she told me) was running at 60%. But although it was rife, prostitution was officially illegal in Haiti.
She was not at all sure why Oxfam was singled out, since she said workers from every NGO - including the most supposedly holy and virtuous - were using prostitutes. A friend of hers, working for a household-name NGO (not Oxfam) had complained to her immediate managers that male co-workers who shared her accommodation, were bringing prostitutes in.
The response was, ‘If you don’t like it, find somewhere else to stay.’
I might add that she’s worked in post-disaster zones in various different countries, and has said that among male NGO workers, often of every nationality under the sun, use of local prostitution is not at all uncommon, and in most countries is not illegal. Anyone inclined to deplore such use, she said, might do well to remember that the men are working far from home, often for very long periods, and frequently in extremely difficult conditions, which people sitting comfortably at home probably can’t begin to imagine.
