Oxfam employees may have both paid and used prostitutes, during evening events in Chad. The news was reported by The Observer, the sister Sunday newspaper to The Guardian. The information has arisen only two days after the revelation of similar scandals in Haiti. The Chad series of events took place more than ten years ago, when the Belgian, Roland Van Hauwermeiren, managed the NGO’s operations in this Central African country.
Informed sources of a staff member of the British newspaper, have led the employee to say, “Women that we thought were prostitutes were invited time and time again to Oxfam’s headquarters.” A former employee has stated that a manager was made redundant in 2006. He went on, “They invited women for parties. We knew that those invited were not simply friends with each other.”
The former employee points out that the organisation does fantastic work, but this is “a problem that we find across the entire sector.”
Stefaan Declercq, the General Secretary of the Belgian arm of Oxfam-Solidarité, stated on Friday that Roland van Hauwermeiren then managed Oxfam in Haiti, being employed by the British section. Declercq said, “I do not wish to hide behind the fact that these individuals did not belong to the Belgian branch of the NGO. That is an irrelevant factor.” In 2011, Roland Van Hauwermeiren had resigned, having acknowledged hiring prostitutes in his villa in Haiti.
The Brussels Times
