This one's an old one because I never did anything . . . except for one thing.
I'm going to have to keep this vague. So three years ago, I started working for a US based (and taxed) Not-for-Profit charity that worked in countries in Africa. We worked in UN-run refugee camps running programmes for the kids. Great work, huh?
Problem was the bosses. A husband and wife team who had no prior experience or education in international development, human rights, or refugee law. They just focused on what looked good on their instagram. They started an NGO on a gimmick that caught a donor's eye.
They hired well, arguably. They got me for free, through a government soft diplomacy programme. I grew their start up from two staff to twenty in less than two years. I brought in 1.2 million dollars through sole fundraising.
I had one bad week. I learnt that I was pregnant and then lost my child the same week.
My “boss” said my work performance was bad but probably because I miscarried. So he would overlook it this time.
I thought it might be all in my head. But I asked the other staff. Everyone had a complaint but couldn't voice it because Mom and Pop were CEO and HR in one.
There are many more shocking things that they did. Like not report sexual misconduct in their classes that they were aware of.
The two of us staffers who understood international humanitarian protocol for Child Protection Mechanisms, and said 'We are not protecting children', we were ignored.
We constantly had to protect the refugee children from instagrammers that the bosses kept sending.
Possibly the worst moment of my life comes from a conversation to this boss. I told him that I was deeply worried about one of our kids. He'd turned up to the refugee camp alone. He'd run away after he saw the soldiers kick his dad's head away like a football. The soldier had decapitated his family.
My boss was gleeful. Happy. Salivating. He said, this is going to make a great story!
I probably could have let it all slide and ignored it. When I resigned, eight people at work said 'Yeah, fuck youse' and quit too.
I wrote to the Board of Directors after I quit and said It's not science. They agreed.
Apparently the husband is writing a book right now, to show how crap international development workers are. I really think he's going to shit on all us who worked so hard to save the kids from him.