Keep giving – but choose a local charity

As the scandal over alleged sexual exploitation by aid workers engulfs Oxfam and other charities, my advice to the generous and kind-hearted folk who donate to these international organisations is to give your money to charities local to you – you will have a far better idea where the money is going and thus be more in control.

As for the overseas aid budget, 90 per cent should be diverted to worthy causes in the UK.

Dave Haskell, Cardigan

Yet again corporate types on bloated salaries are letting us down. The Oxfam debacle is only the tip of the charity iceberg, I’m sure, and after the Carillion collapse, is so depressing.

Every donor to every charity sadly now needs to undertake due diligence before contributing a penny. Historical reputation and loyalty have gone for ever.

The pull on the heartstrings of the generous UK taxpayer has been tugged too far.

As tax relief is claimed on contributions paid to Oxfam, it’s disgusting that the taxpayer is seemingly funding prostitutes for (some) workers. Put your money back in your pocket everyone. We need our faith restored first.

Peter Bryant, Ramsgate, Kent

It hardly comes as a surprise that so much money contributed by UK taxpayers by way of foreign aid is wasted or goes astray. The

enormous salaries paid to some people who run large charitable organisations and the revelation that some of their workers allegedly use the money to pay for prostitutes adds insult to injury.

If private individuals want to donate money to such charities that’s their prerogative but I believe the billions we pay each year in foreign aid would be better spent on the NHS. Roy Connolly, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire

‘Charity begins at home’, the saying goes – although not seemingly in Britain. Oxfam receives substantial amounts from our overseas aid budget and the latest scandal highlights how flawed the system is. It was a nonsense for David Cameron legislate for a specific amount of GDP to be spent each year on foreign aid, resulting in a mad rush by civil servants to throw our

money in any direction so long as the legal obligation is fulfilled. That law should be repealed.

With the NHS struggling for funding, it is ludicrous for aid to be sent to the likes of China or Pakistan, corrupt regimes or girls’ karaoke clubs in Ethiopia. Britain should still give aid to alleviate the suffering of the needy but not to line the pockets of the greedy.

Bob MacDougall, Kippen, Stirlingshire

The most recent revelations about Oxfam merely back up the dictum that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. But we have to wonder whether the evergrowing list of organisations that have abused their positions in society is down to today’s belief in individualism, with people trying to get the most that they can for themselves out of any situation. Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs,

Glasgow