The Evening Express (Aberdeen, Scotland) published an article on the mismanagement of hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations raised for Ukrainian children, by workers of Aberdeen-based Mission East Trust. The Trust, which was set up by a group of Christian volunteers as an evangelical mission, made Ј612,000 in 1998 with harrowing video pictures of a young boy having his tonsils removed allegedly without anesthetia. (Incidentally, according to medical professionals, it is a common practice in Ukraine to operate on tonsils using three kinds of anesthesia: intravenous, through the respiratory tract, or local anesthesia. It looks like this last kind was used in the case aired in Scotland, which caused shock among the sensitive and softhearted Scots watching).
The pictures sparked an outpour of generosity, with more than Ј200,000 coming from the northeast alone. However, only Ј115,000 went directly to medical aid, reports the Evening Express. Today charity chiefs acknowledge less than Ј10,000 may have been spent on anesthetics for children in Ukraine. Chief fund-raiser of the fund, Grainne Curtis, was paid a Ј40,000 salary working for the charity. She had earlier taken a Ј20,000 cut of money raised in her native Ireland. Now she admits taking her husband and three children on a Ј10,000 all expensespaid trip to America, visiting Disney World while there.
Mission East’s accounts for November 1997 to November 1998 show Ј115,000 was spent on medical aid to children and Ј28,000 on travel expenses. Other money was spent on a high-rent Aberdeen base the charity could not afford, on a fundraising mission to the US, which failed to raise any money, on mobile and other phone bills, and on salaries to former volunteers — primarily trustees, their friends, and family. The accounts show Mission East was badly in the red at the end of November 1998 with arrears for tax and employee pay. One accountant who saw the books wrote to trustees in shock in December 1998. “The trustees have displayed a naivete and lack of business acumen in discharging their responsibilities for the stewardship of Ј600,000 or so in donations. The evidence suggests there has been major mismanagement.”
One volunteer said, “I cried when I saw the money had gone. So many people gave their time and money because they thought they were helping children. Children broke open their piggy banks.” Mission East shipped one convoy of much-needed drugs to Ukraine in April 1998, then another in November.
Today Mission East’s founder Greg Dixon denies any wrongdoing. In his opinion, the Mission East Trust achieves what it sets out to do. The Charity Office has confirmed it is investigating the case.
