There have been at least six cases of child sexual abuse by people connected to global aid organization Plan International, the charity said yesterday. The suspects have all been dismissed and criminal complaints have been registered with police. The charity said the alleged abuse took place between mid-2016 and mid-2017, but did not disclose where it took place.
Plan International is a British-based organization that focuses on children's rights and equality for girls. It is active in 71 countries, according to Plan's website.
The victims and their families have been put in touch with local support networks, including for assistance for medical and psychological issues.
"We are truly sorry for the harm that any child or young person has suffered. We are determined to be an organization where abuse and exploitation cannot take place," Plan's chief executive officer Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen said in a statement.
Several international charities, including Oxfam and Doctors without Borders (DWB), have admitted in recent weeks that sexual abuse occurred at the hands of its employees.
Oxfam had made public Monday its 2011 report into the episode, revealing that three staff had physically threatened a witness in the prostitution investigation. The report, compiled in the year after the workers were deployed to Haiti, found that a total of seven staff were accused of using prostitutes at an Oxfam-funded residence. Four staff were fired for gross misconduct and three others, including then country director Roland Van Hauwermeiren, were allowed to quit. Britain and the European Union put their funding of Oxfam under review after reported abuse by some staff in Haiti after an earthquake in 2010.
