“We are deeply sorry we enabled a serial rapist to prey on poor Black girls and infect them with HIV...but why isn’t anyone talking about all the good we’ve done?” morethanme.org 
this horrible story here. features.propublica.org/liberia/unprot…
TL;DR version: a white woman from NJ starts a school for girls in one of Liberia’s most impoverished communities, despite having no background in edu or int’l development. She quickly becomes a darling of the TedTalk/U.S philanthropy circuit — even a Time Person of The Year. 1/x
At some point, she becomes romantically involved with the local man she chooses to be her liaison to the slum and who is a fixer at the school. He accompanies her on her publicity/funding tours to the US; images of the two together appear all over the foundation’s website. 2/n
The whole time, that man is raping the girls at the school. When they misbehave in class, they are sent to him for “discipline,” which is when many of the assaults happen.
Ten came forward, although the total number he violated isn’t known. 3/n
Ten came forward, although the total number he violated isn’t known. 3/n
the school-aged girls are not believed at first — many had been sex workers to survive, and were seen as trash — and a jury nearly acquits him.
He eventually dies of AIDS in prison while awaiting a retrial. At least one of the girls he raped later tests positive, too. 4/n
He eventually dies of AIDS in prison while awaiting a retrial. At least one of the girls he raped later tests positive, too. 4/n
The school’s responses were alternately obfuscatory about when they learned about the abuse and self-congratulating. Its critics, including former staffers, say the crimes were abetted by the NGO’s ignorance and white savior zeal. 5/n
It’s a horrible story. And it’s worth asking why even before the sexual assaults became public, more people weren’t bothered by the ethics of plastering the face of a teenaged girl who exchanged sex for food all over a campaign for white ppl in the US. 6/n m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_22…
That little girl had to go back to that community after her name and face were beamed all over the world and she was called a $2 child prostitute. 7/n
There are already ppl rushing to defend the founder and her good intentions despite the destruction they’ve wrought. And that makes sense, since the founder’s good intentions were always doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the glowing press abt her. 8/n
