Minnie Driver said the decision to step down as an Oxfam ambassador following the sex abuse scandal engulfing the charity ‘broke my heart’.
Driver had been in the role for 20 years but walked away following allegations Oxfam workers – including disgraced ex-executive Roland Van Hauwermeiren – hired prostitutes in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
There has since been further explosive allegations made against the organisation.
Earlier this month, Driver became the first celebrity ambassador to step down, saying she was ‘devastated’ by the revelations and now she has revealed she quit the role to ‘send a message’.
Minnie Driver (pictured at a Vogue party this week) quit her role as celebrity ambassador for Oxfam in protest at the charity’s sex scandal. She said the decision ‘broke my heart’
The British star has worked with Oxfam for 20 years, donating a £72,000 lunch date to its 2008 Ebay auction
The 48-year-old actress, who was one of the charity’s 16 ambassadors, said in a series of tweets that she was ‘devastated’ by the Oxfam revelations
Driver, 48, told the Evening Standard: ‘I heard rumours about things, I asked questions, but I’d been assured there was nothing going on.
‘It cut me to the very heart. I needed to send a very clear message, not to the people I worked with on the ground over the years, but to the corporate people who knew this was going on and who were not transparent about it.’
Driver was joined in stepping down from the charity by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and singer Talia Storm.
The beleaguered boss of Oxfam – who has so far resisted calls to step down – was forced to issue a groveling apology over the Haiti scandal – as he revealed they have received 26 new reports of sexual exploitation in the wake of the crisis.
Chief executive Mark Goldring apologised for downplaying the charity’s scandal by saying that it was ‘not like we murdered babies in their cots’.
He said he made the ill-judged comment after six days of sleepless nights worrying and dealing with the scandal.
Mr Goldring, who is being investigated over his handling of a sexual assault complaint, apologised as he was hauled in front of MPs to be grilled in the scandal.
Mr Goldring, who earns nearly £150,000-a-year, told MPs: ‘I do apologise. I was thinking under stress, I had given many interviews…. I should not have said those things. It is not for Oxfam to judge issues of proportionality.’
He added: ‘I shouldn’t have put my own sleep, or lack of it, in the public domain.’
He said he made the remark after six days of no sleep, adding: ‘I make no excuses, I make an apology for comparing what I was going through with the bigger picture.
‘My first concern is the women of Haiti and anybody else who has been wronged as a result of Oxfam’s programme.’
And he said the aid organisation should have done more to protect the vulnerable people it worked with and ensure abusers could not work elsewhere in the sector.
It came as it was revealed that 7,000 people have pulled their donations to Oxfam in the wake of the scandal.
Meanwhile, Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt said Oxfam’s former chief executive Barbara Stocking and deputy CEO Penny Lawrence ‘quite possibly deliberately’ misled the authorities over the Haiti scandal.
Earlier this month it emerged that Oxfam charity workers had paid prostitutes for sex in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake.
But men accused of exploiting their position and power to have sex with women were allowed to go off and get jobs in other aid organisations, it emerged.
And whisteblowers have said that the scandal extended to the charity’s British shops where young volunteers have complained that they were sexually assaulted by staff members.
Meanwhile, Mr Goldring also revealed that last year Oxfam received 87 allegations of sexual misconduct.
He said 50 of those related to things happening in shops and in Oxfam’s trading operations and 35 incidents were reported to the Charity Commission.
And he also admitted that one of the men involved in the scandal in Haiti went on to work as a contractor for another branch of Oxfam.
He said: ‘I believe that one person was re-employed as a contractor indirectly by another Oxfam – not Oxfam GB.
‘That was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. It was a short term contract. It was a failing.’
He also revealed that 7,000 people have pulled their donations from the charity in the wake of the scandal.
Oxfam has been plunged into crisis after it emerged that Roland Van Hauwermeiren (pictured) used prostitutes in Haiti while he was stationed in the country dealing with the aftermath of he devastating 2010 earthquake
Mark Goldring (pictured in Parliament this week) issued a groveling apology for downplaying the charity’s scandal by saying that it was ‘not like we murdered babies in their cots’