Report a Crime, Go to Jail
In an attempt to shut up future whistle-blowers, a Swiss charity organization decided to file a defamation suit against the couple that exposed the charity’s wide-spread pedophilia. This is a page torn right from the U.S. legal retaliation play book; you know the one where organizations sue individuals to have them stop posting blog articles, talking to the media, etc.
The Campbells, who have lived in Ethiopia for more than a decade, have drawn wide support in Ethiopia. A group formed to support them, Stop Institutional Pedophilia in Ethiopia, said the charity is “forcing Gary and Jill to apologize for blowing the whistle and stopping the chain of homosexual abusers victimizing orphans.”
Gary Campbell issued a public apology for the comments last month, then said he did so only because nobody would be able to care for the couple’s children if they both went to jail.
The abuse scandal prompted the charity to apologize and leave Ethiopia. In 2003, an Ethiopian court sentenced orphanage director David Christie to nine years of hard labor for abusing several young boys.
This is a good reminder that not all charities are what they claim. Similar to the exposure of United Nations workers’ wide spread sexual abuse in Africa, the media yawns. I get the feeling the media doesn’t want to seriously examine certain charities, especially the ones who serve much needed basic necessities in Africa. However, the lack of media scrutiny is exactly why years of sexual misconduct will plague the recipients of charity in poor nations. It’s not like they really have a voice since they are told what they can have and when they can have it. Being dependent on charity is slavery in its own way and evil people will take advantage. They always do.
The message to other charity workers is simple: The organizations have power even over the workers who don’t fall in line.
