The charity sector has suffered considerable and probably permanent damage due to the recent slew of sleaze allegations aimed at a few large organisations.

In Haiti it has been reported that some Oxfam staff organised orgies in a villa in Port au Prince, with women offered aid for sex after the 2010 earthquake there in the “culture of entitlement” that apparently existed at Oxfam. As a result Haiti has banned Oxfam GB while it investigates the allegations, including those claiming that some of the prostitutes were 14 years old. The age of consent in Haiti is 18.

Since the story broke donor support for Oxfam has dwindled as donors decided they were unhappy to see their generosity used to obtain sexual favours for some Oxfam staff, and a number of Oxfam’s celebrity ambassadors have resigned. More than a hundred claims of sexual abuse or harassment of young staff at Oxfam shops in the last nine years have been recorded.

The African charity ONE, founded by rock artist Bono has also been in the public eye with allegations that its chief executive Sipho Moyo, offered one of her young female members of staff to a 60 year-old Tanzanian politician for sex, and then demoted her and slashed her salary when she refused to get involved. Further allegations of bullying at ONE’s African office have seen made and the charity is backed by celebrities Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and George Clooney, with the UK’s former prime minister David Cameron as a former board member.