Oxfam boss during sex scandal reveals her own abuse

THE former director of Oxfam has revealed for the first time that she “couldn’t defend” staff during the charity’s sexual misconduct scandal because of her own experiences of abuse.

Winnie Byanyima was Oxfam’s international executive director, and led the charity in 2018 when it was engulfed in scandal after reports aid workers had used prostitutes while working in disaster-stricken Haiti in 2010.

Ms Byanyima – a former Ugandan MP who now heads UNAIDS – apologised, suggesting she was sorry “from the bottom” of her heart and describing the scandal as a “stain” on Oxfam.

Ms Byanyima told the BBC’s Desert Island Discs that the events brought back difficult memories of her own experiences of abuse. Aged 18, she fled Uganda after rejecting sexual advances from officials connected with the regime of Idi Amin. These memories came to the fore after the Oxfam scandal broke, Ms Byanyima said. She described crying after one difficult radio interview. “I felt as if I was being assaulted. Because I know the pain and it came back. That’s why I couldn’t but apologise [in 2018]. I couldn’t defend staff. I defended the one who was abused.”