Serious rebuke for actor who mocked Cambodian kids his charity was helping
Panto dame Alan Montanaro’s cruel and insensitive Whatsapp remarks earn Commissioner’s rebuke, as Cambodian charity’s financial shortcomings are revealed
Cruel and offensive: Commissioner Kenneth Wain said the description by Alan Montanaro (above) of impoverished children as ‘window washers’ and ‘kidney donors’ called into question the motive behind his charity
Actor Alan Montanaro has been severely rebuked and warned by the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations after failing to provide a transparent financial system for donations received by his Drama Outreach Project, and over the offensive choice of words he used to refer to the impoverished Cambodian children his organisation was supposed to be helping.
Popularly known as the raucous Christmas panto dame, Montanaro had a different side revealed to him when Commissioner Kenneth Wain chastised him for using offensive language to describe the children that his Drama Outreach Programme was helping.
Montanaro was reported for taking sponsorships of €275 for each child without providing proper invoices or documents to sponsors to verify receipt and how this money was used.
Drama Outreach Project, of which Montanaro is its president, organises visits to Cambodia every summer for Maltese volunteers to help out deprived children.
The messages where Montanaro refers to Cambodian children as window washers and kidney donors
‘One cannot believe you have the children’s interest at heart’
One complaint to the commissioner was that when one volunteer group arrived in Cambodia, the committee members were apparently on holiday in neighbouring Burma – upping sticks and leaving volunteers to handle the outreach project.
Montanaro was also reported to the Commissioner over statements he made in a Whatsapp chat with volunteers and committee members in which he refers to Cambodian children as ‘window washers’, ‘kidney donors’ and ‘just bloody kids.’
Another message by Montanaro stated: “I hope he’s not considering becoming a surgeon cause I’m going to need a cornea in a couple of years and I’m cashing on El Mingo!” – Mingo being a distortion of one of the children’s names, Meng.
In his warning letter Wain reminds Montanaro: “The ‘silly banter’ as you call it continues in an equally offensive and distasteful manner with your cruel and insensitive remarks about ‘Meng’ who, one assumes is one of the boys you were there to help, and your similarly offensive remarks about the girls at the village which I needn’t quote.”
“Specifically, calling the children your organisation is supposed to be helping, and for whom one assumes you care, ‘just bloody kids. Window washes or kidney-donors the lot of them’ cannot ever pass for a joke, or even for a ‘rather crude’ sense of humour. The remark is offensive in itself and calls in question the very motive behind Drama Outreach in Cambodia because one cannot believe that you have the children’s interest and well-being at heart when you state this attitude towards them.”
Wain warned that the Voluntary Organisations Act obliges him as Commissioner to monitor the behaviour of the administrators of voluntary organisations.
On financial accountability, Wain was even more unequivocal. He said “all kinds of funds must be acknowledged, receipted and reported in the organisation’s financial statement and report submitted to the Commissioner.”
He knocked Montanaro’s excuse of this being ‘clearly an oversight’ as not acceptable and pointed that all financial transactions had to be kept and noted.
He directed Montanaro to bring the contents of the report to the attention of the board of administrators of Drama Outreach and to discuss it in the next meeting and to subsequently copy him with the minutes of the meeting.
He also obliged him to ensure that financial accountability was ensured.
On Drama Outreach’s website, sponsors are invited to contribute €275 a year to support a child’s basic daily meals, school materials, school uniform, haircuts, medical and dental check-ups and pocket money, which they are learning to save in their bank accounts. The website claims that when sponsoring a child one will also be supporting the child’s family with a sack of rice. The website says the progress of the sponsored children is monitored, and ensuring that they are attending school.
“As godparents you will receive regular updates on the child’s development,” the website proclaims. The Drama Outreach Project has as its president Alan Montanaro and includes six other members.
