TVIND ALERT

Humana in Germany has suffered a severe blow, as all 70 organisations in a Berlin umbrella aid organisation called BER (“Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag”) have rejected invitations to the official opening of a huge new Humana clothes sorting facility, due to open on Monday (September 21st).

At the heart of the NGOs’ criticism is that Humana presents itself as a development aid organisation, while the BER believes that it has nothing to do with classic development aid and is not a serious charity. “We don’t want Humana in Berlin”, says CEO Alexander Schudy. Schudy called for ‘a broad social alliance against Humana’, comparing the boycott to protests against Scientology, which opened a new headquarters in the German capital in January 2007.

More details and BER statement

Friday last week (September 4) the Danish police acted promptly, when a former policeman called them, because he had spotted the fugitive TG-boss, Mogens Amdi Petersen, in a shop in Holbaek in Denmark.

Or, he thought he had spotted the TG-boss, who is wanted by the police to stand trial for tax fraud and embezzlement for millions of Danish Kroner. Mogens Amdi Petersen and four other TG-bosses fled Denmark and went into hiding, probably in either Zimbabwe or Mexico, before the appeal trial in High Court. Only one TG-leader, Poul Joergensen, remained in Denmark and stood trial. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

The police Friday at once went to the shop and got hold of a man and a woman. But it was not Mogens Amdi Petersen – but a lookalike, an innocent local teacher. The incident shows that the Danish police have not given up hunting Mogens Amdi Petersen and the other TG-bosses to get them stand trial.

In August 2009 Chelsea wrote to Tvind Alert: “My name is Chelsea and I am currently a volunteer at IICD Michigan. I’m leaving tomorrow for many reasons. There are many things wrong here. I was wondering if any volunteer actually sued humana or the IICD? I spent $1,000 and was not told of anything.” Chelsea has since sent a complaint to the Attorney General’s office in Michigan.

This is the story she told us. Index of all stories.

One of the top-bosses in the Teachers Group (TG), the body that runs Tvind and Humana, Poul Joergensen, is now behind bars. Earlier this year he was sentenced by a Danish court to two and a half years imprisonment for serious tax fraud and embezzlement of millions of Danish Kroner.

Joergensen 68, was the only one of several accused to stand trial. Five other top-leaders, including Mogens Amdi Petersen, have fled from Denmark to avoid the trial. The Danish police have not been able to find them. They are believed to be in hiding in either Zimbabwe or Mexico, where the TG has its luxury headquarters.

According to the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Joergensen was denied the right to appeal to the Danish High Court and is now in prison. If he behaves well in prison he will probably be released in one year and three months – after serving half of the 2.5 years sentence.

What’s it really like to sign up with Humana or Planet Aid and travel abroad as a ‘Development Instructor’? A simple summary of the issues raised by the scores of young people who have sent their stories in to this site. If you are considering enrolling, read this first. Disclaimer

Brazil: the Floryl plantation. Our restored page with all the dirt on Floryl, the 92,000-hectare commercial farm in Brazil bought by the Teachers Group in 1994, allegedly using $12m laundered charity money. According to Danish police, the cash was laundered through front companies and a fake ‘green’ charity with an address on the Champs Elysee.

But is it the great herbal tea scam?

ADPP, the Tvind-controlled enterprise that runs TG schools in Angola, has been awarded $1.46m of US taxpayers’ money for ‘malaria prevention and control’ in Africa.

This is the same part of Tvind that was shown to be secretly laundering up to $30,000 a week of aid money from oil companies back to Denmark in cash in the 1990s, as disclosed in 1999 by Britta Junge Pedersen.

ADPP Angola is today run by the same Tvind operative as then – Rikke Viholm.

We are unaware of any special ADPP expertise in malaria. However, one of the methods being used by ADPP against malaria is a herbal tea called Artemisia – and it appears that another branch of the global Teachers Group, Gaia, is growing Artemisia at its commercial cashew plantation in Itoculu, Mozambique.

So will USAID’s money buy Artemisia from Gaia – thus sending much of the USAID money direct into Teachers Group offshore accounts?

>>>> USAID Press release

>>>> Agreement between USAID and ADPP (pdf)

>>>> Artemisia in Gaia programme, Mozambique (pdf)

We have received our quarterly web hosting bill of €141 euros (that’s £121, or $197, or 1,054 Danish Krone).

The Tvind Teachers Group is immensely rich – we are a group of citizen journalists with only private resources. We receive NO funding.

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by Frede Jakobsen

Humana People-to-People is going north – and taking its first steps into the many French-speaking countries of Africa.

Until today, Humana has been present only in the English and Portuguese speaking countries of Southern Africa. Now Humana has ‘invaded’ the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on its march to be present in as many African countries as possible.

The move into DRC has been made possible with the help of former US-president Bill Clinton’s foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Through its connections with major funders, CGI has helped Humana to get its hands on 8.1 million dollars for a three year implementation of the Amdi Petersen-invented “TCE” (Total Control of the Epidemic) Aids programme, starting this year.

It is not clear how much money CGI has itself donated. But the Clinton foundation has strongly recommended Humana’s projects. Amongst the other donors are the World Bank, UNAIDS and the Ministry of Health in DR Congo.

The International Humana Movement – from it’s headquarters in Zimbabwe – has spent a couple of years preparing for the invasion of DR Congo. A DR Congo-branch of Humana has been established in the outskirts of the capital, Kinshasha, with a small-scale so-called Child Aid-project.

“Students” from DR Congo have been sent to Humana’s schools in Zimbabwe and Malawi. The big breakthrough has come with the Clinton-foundation’s decision to recommend the donation of 8.1 million US-dollars to the TCE project in the border-region between DR Congo and Zambia. Humana has been very active in Zambia for years.

Details of Clinton Global Initiative payments

by Frede Jakobsen

Humana People-to-People is going north – and taking its first steps into the many French-speaking countries of Africa.

Until today, Humana has been present only in the English and Portuguese speaking countries of Southern Africa. Now Humana has ‘invaded’ the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on its march to be present in as many African countries as possible.

The move into DRC has been made possible with the help of former US-president Bill Clinton’s foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Through its connections with major funders, CGI has helped Humana to get its hands on 8.1 million dollars for a three year implementation of the Amdi Petersen-invented “TCE” (Total Control of the Epidemic) Aids programme, starting this year.

It is not clear how much money CGI has itself donated. But the Clinton foundation has strongly recommended Humana’s projects. Amongst the other donors are the World Bank, UNAIDS and the Ministry of Health in DR Congo.

The International Humana Movement – from it’s headquarters in Zimbabwe – has spent a couple of years preparing for the invasion of DR Congo. A DR Congo-branch of Humana has been established in the outskirts of the capital, Kinshasha, with a small-scale so-called Child Aid-project.

“Students” from DR Congo have been sent to Humana’s schools in Zimbabwe and Malawi. The big breakthrough has come with the Clinton-foundation’s decision to recommend the donation of 8.1 million US-dollars to the TCE project in the border-region between DR Congo and Zambia. Humana has been very active in Zambia for years.

Details of Clinton Global Initiative payments