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Humana Alert | |
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What is 'Humana Alert'?
This web site is an inquiry into a wealthy, secretive and mysterious international business and political organisation, the Teachers Group.
The Teachers Group (TG) controls Humana People-to-People, Planet Aid and several other volunteering organisations. In so far as it is in the public eye, the Teachers Group likes to present itself as an international charity. In fact, the TG is like no other international body. It is a political movement, often quite extreme in its left wing rhetoric, which is also a wealthy and unprincipled landholder. It praises justice and fair play for the common man, yet exploits its workers for low wages on vast tropical plantations. It is secretive and is often described as a cult.
The TG does not have a conventional structure, but is run as a group of inter-related enterprises from countries that include Zimbabwe, Mexico, and Denmark. It's few dozen leading members, all educated according to a unique system devised by The Founder, control its extensive portfolio of business interests and 'humanitarian projects'. The Teachers Group's current assets are estimated at $840 million.
Among its less well known money-spinning enterprises are international trading concerns that ship mangoes and bananas across the world to your local supermarket, timber companies stripping the forests of Siberia and south east Asia, furniture manufacturers, and the world's biggest network of used clothes companies. The Teachers Group owns huge and valuable fruit farms and plantations in Brazil, Belize, Ecuador, Grand Cayman, St Lucia, St Vincent and Venezuela.
The whole structure is underpinned by a covert network of offshore companies, tax haven bank accounts, Swiss associations and tax free trusts.
Its founder and leader, Mogens Amdi Petersen, is wanted by the police and is believed to be living as the guest of the Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe - or perhaps in Mexico, Fiji or Brazil. He and five other top leaders are charged with fraud by the Danish public prosecutor. The trial of the only Teachers Group defendant who has not fled the country began there in November 2007.
The organisation is sometimes collectively known as 'Tvind', or 'The Tvind Empire', after the name of its first headquarters on a farm in western Denmark.
Editors
Frede Jakobsen (Denmark). Danish journalist, now working on the newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende. A reporter on various Danish newspapers since 1968, who has covered the Tvind story for many years. Former editor in chief on the daily "Land og Folk", former Head of Information in the Danish Third World NGO, Ibis, former adviser for Radio Zinica in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Contact: frede.jakobsen@tdcadsl.dk . Telephone (Denmark) +45 40 14 52 90.
Mike Durham (UK). British journalist and writer. Formerly staff correspondent on education, health, social services and consumer affairs issues for British newspapers that included the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Observer and Independent. Currently press officer for an international environmental investigative charity. Founder of Humana Alert in 1999 and author of a number of articles about Amdi Petersen and the Teachers Group. Contact: mikefromlondon@gmail.com. Telephone (UK mobile) +44 (0) 7882 756187.
Advisory board members
Marianna Maver (USA). American former employee of the Tvind-run International School Ake Pecha, a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed minor wards of the courts of Virginia (1984 – '85). She brought the questionable practices at the International School to the attention of Virginia authorities, which resulted in the recession of the school's license in July of 1985. Contact: maver@wmol.com Tel (USA) +1 (269) 857-4170.
Zahara Heckscher (USA) . Co-author of How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas (Penguin Books, 2002). She has conducted research on Tvind since 1987, when she was one of the first volunteers to travel to Africa with Tvind's U.S. school, IICD. Her research includes unauthorized visits to Tvind projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the group has ties with President Robert Mugabe. Contact: peacepeace@compuserve.com. Tel: +1 202-489-8908 (US cellphone)
Thomas Gruhle (Germany/South Africa). Translator of Humana Alert into German. Concerned to make information available about Tvind and its related organisations and institutions also for German-speaking people. Furthermore he is contact for the anyone who would like to formulate their questions, suggestions and criticisms in German. cavalorn07@googlemail.com. Telephone: on request.
Frede Farmand (Denmark). Author and journalist. For legal reasons, the domain name and web site www.tvindalert.com are legally registered in Denmark to the writer and investigative journalist Frede Farmand, author of a book about the Amdi Petersen and the Teachers Group The Master of Tvind and presenter of Danish television documentaries about the organisation. Contact: on request.
We welcome expressions of interest from any other journalists, investigators, volunteers or former Teachers with appropriate expertise who would be interested in joining the advisory board.
On a shoestring!
We receive NO funding, subsidy or grant of any kind. ALL the work on this site is contributed free of charge and most of of our running costs such as internet service charges, telephone bills, travel and photography are met out of our own pockets. It costs at least $760 a year in Internet fees alone to keep the site running.
From time to time we receive generous contributions from readers, supporters, members of the public, ex-Teachers and volunteers or their families. Any donations we receive are put towards meeting our Internet hosting charges.
If you have found this site interesting, informative or helpful, please make a small contribution to our costs. With better funding, we could do so much more, such as paying for company searches, subscriptions to Internet databases and business records, official catalogues, newspaper archives, access to training and expertise. If you would like to help, please make a donation by Paypal to donations@humana-alert.com, click the button below, or contact us for an alternative.
Thank you
UK mobile: +44 (0) 7882 756187
Denmark: +45 40 14 52 90
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