A children’s charity for which the Duchess of Sussex Meghan was a global ambassador, has denied allegations of racism and sexism via LA Times.
Meghan got involved with World Vision in 2016, the year she met Prince Harry. She went on trips, including to Rwanda and India, to see its work.
A picture of Meghan hugging a child during the visit to Rwanda became famous, and the charity praised her as a “true humanitarian” who would bring “vast energy” to her royal work, following the announcement of her engagement.
The Charity Commission is assessing a complaint that the international charity’s British arm is an allegedly “toxic” and “hostile” workplace. Complaints of racism, sexism and homophobia have allegedly been “ignored, silenced or inadequately handled” by senior leadership.
World Vision UK has denied the allegations. However, it has filed a serious incident report with the regulator following claims by the Third Sector website, which said it interviewed 11 current and former staff.
Third Sector claimed that the charity’s human resources department confused two black female employees, that the names of non-white staff were mispronounced and that their accents were imitated by colleagues. Female employees allegedly complained of being patronised in meetings and the charity’s equity, diversity and inclusion group was allegedly told that “anti-LGBT staff members need to be allowed to have space too”.
The complaint claimed that legal non-disclosure agreements were “routinely used to silence staff leaving after negative experiences”.
The charity stated that the allegations were false and had been made by a “small number” of former employees. It is going through a restructuring that is expected to involve the redundancy of 60 of the 200 staff.
World Vision alleges that at least eight senior staff members have left over the past few months after being forced to step down or because they felt uncomfortable under its leadership.
The charity said in a statement: “World Vision UK has contacted the Charity Commission and while any member of the public can make a complaint to them, there is no investigation against the charity. If the commission contacts us in relation to any complaint, we will of course co-operate fully.
“World Vision UK operates by the highest standards set by the Charity Commission. Our processes are devoted to meeting those high standards across all of our operations.
“The allegations we have been made aware of by Third Sector are false and are thought to be sourced from a small number of employees who have left the organisation.
“Our staff are extremely important to us. We provide various mechanisms for dealing with any staff complaints and if these are upheld, we act immediately to put things right and take action.”
Fola Komolafe became the charity’s first female and first black chief executive in April after she was appointed. Its most recent accounts show an income of £66.7 million, down from £74.6 million the previous year. It is part of World Vision Partnership, which claims to be the largest international children’s charity in the world.
