Shafaq News/ A report commissioned by an international charity confirmed that the organisation had covered up child sexual abuse and corruption in its worldwide network of care facilities since the 1980s.

Staff at SOS Children's Villages had abused children, forced some of them to have abortions, intimidated whistle-blowers and destroyed incriminating evidence, said the 262-page report.

Investigators appointed to look into the allegations identified issues in a string of countries across the world, including the irregular awarding of multi-million-dollar contracts.

The independent special commission appointed in 2021 confirmed that "serious allegations of incidents of child sexual and physical abuse... have occurred" in the NGO's worldwide facilities, its report said.

There were "numerous cases of pregnancies among children and youth... as a consequence of sexual abuse or due to sexual relations", said the report.

As a result, some children were forced to have abortions, it added.

Whistle-blowers, including the charity's own care staff, paid a heavy price when they denounced the abuse, the report said.

"Many of (them) lost their homes and SOS families and livelihoods, trying to protect children from harm."

In an effort to "protect the organisation over the interest of the child", evidence was destroyed and incidents covered up.

The report blamed "a patriarchal and hierarchical organizational culture, which tolerated disregarding of children's rights, victim-blaming, bullying, nepotism, cover-ups, and collusion at all levels of the organization".

In one case, a now-deceased donor was alleged to have sexually abused children between 2010 and 2014 in Nepal.

Having donated more than 900,000 euros to fund local facilities, the donor was granted "access" to them where he allegedly abused children there, the report said.

The "previous key leadership at the time also facilitated the travel of a boy victim from Nepal to Austria, to visit the donor", the report added.

In Panama, the investigators described a "culture of fear" and "victim blaming".

After one survivor there reported abuse to a senior member of the charity, she "was made to state publicly, in front of children and employees, that she was lying", said the report.

The commission was also able to substantiate a significant number of fraud and corruption cases, abuse of power and irregularities in the awarding of contracts, sometimes involving up to millions of dollars.

The CEO of SOS Children's Villages, Ingrid Johansen, in comments to AFP, acknowledged that the report was "tough" and would make difficult reading for the charity's staff.

She said that since taking over as head of the Austria-based charity in 2021 she had worked hard to win back the trust of donors and repair the mistakes of the past.

Already in 2021, she issued an apology for the abuse.

For the report, the commission visited about 10 countries, combed through thousands of documents and conducted over 180 interviews with alleged victims, former managers and current supervisors.

SOS Children's Villages International supports about 2.5 million people, mostly children, in over 130 countries through its centres and programmes, helping orphans and others in need.

The charity has faced a separate controversy more recently.

Its Russian branch was suspended after German media revealed accusations that Moscow had taken in Ukrainian children who had allegedly been deported.

"Because it's such a serious allegation, they will remain suspended until we have 150-percent certainty that all is in order," Johansen told AFP.