TVIND ALERT

This story was sent in by a Brazilian volunteer


Independence Day


In 2009, 15th of April, I Arrived at CICD [The College for International Co-operation and Developement, in the UK] where I met ‘the strangers’.


They look like human beings, but actually they are Aliens who want to control all of the world, a very smart group of Aliens!!! Seen whats going on with the earth, they did a “Organization Not Governamental” Humana People to People using the issue of unequalilty social, poverty, diseases all those weak points of our society, like this people feel guilty, so it’s easier to hide the reality behind. With social projects in (undevelopet countries) they do “help“, but actually they are studying people all around the world and using them, to get money and power.


With volunteer workers they don’t need to spend money with employeers, first volunteer pass for a brainwash in Colleges, CICD is one of that colleges and is in UK, also they have one college like CICD in every continent of the world. There volunteers work must of the time in a illegal way, selling magazines and asking donnation on the street (must of the cities in UK it’s not illegal to do that, so we must keep attetion with the police mans)


‘Austin Powers’
First aliens I met in CICD looked like that: ‘Austin Powers’ is Always in Action and Marie Powers is always Tooo… with her computer of the power the manipulating, she is always trying to get new people to be part of the College, Aliens have great technology, she can start to do the brainwash by computer. And she or he or ( I dont know if they have sex) really resemble Austin Powers.


‘The Ghost’
AHHHHHHH be careful because there is a GHOST in CICD too, the ghost is white and really can be dangerous (‘L’…..the GHOST ). The ghost loves to SCREAM on face of people, loves to put people down and see them crying with her DISGUSTING words. She has an AMAZING energy, but dont worry she has already died and can’t hurt you, she is too unbearable that the king of hell doesn’t want her there, so now she has nothing to do thats why she came to CICD because there (she or he) can disrupt people’s lives. Sometimes yes she can hurt you, because Madagascar is not part of Africa…


‘The Dog’
(Rolf rolf rolf rolf…) (He or she) is always around this place sniffing and watching if we are working, he takes care of the storage, place where they keep the second hand clothes, also where volunteers work to pack those clothes and sell it after, so he pees in those capsacks to mark his territory, thats why clothes there smell so bad!! he is used to talk with people BARKING and Snarling, he growls alone all the time, common habit of an old dog.


‘The Cat’
The cat (She or He) looks to be very calm and normal, almost all the time, but she is a cat and when you are not waiting for, the cat attacks. She is always around those capsacks as well, exactly as a cat hunting very attentive, caring, slow… If you find a nice phone from the bags of clothes she can steal it from you without you realising …Also a wallet from class room.


‘The Trucker’
There is a chef who looks like a TRUCKER driving all of those strangers and making plans and tricks to find more people to play with their dreams, and use them as slaves “o o ohhh no no volunteers”, “and go GO GO to work” (go and make a good beg to people on the street, tell them that this money will HELP CHILDREN TO HAVE A BREAD TO EAT) “GO Go!!! Do not came back with less than 50 pounds (PUt in CICD account), (BREAD FOR THESE CHILDREN WE LEAVE FOR MANY FLYS IN DINNER HALL). GO go and beg for money because otherwise you can’t realise your dreams to go to Africa or India and be a volunteer (a VOLUNTEER)…….”


Are we sure that we are volunteers (DIs, Development Instructor) to make the life in the world more equal or we are volunteers who want to travel and know nice places; see misery of food, health and give more value to what we have at home, are we really volunteers or we just want a nice CV with an INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION.


MAYBE WE ARE JUST AFRAID TO SEE THE REALITY, afraid to give up!!!!!!!! and go where, so far from home? (THEY DONT PAY US; AT LEAST THEY GIVE YOU FOOD AND ACCOMMODATION; OUT IN THE REAL WORLD YOU ARE FUCKED WITHOUT FOOD AND SHELTER ), or afraid to give up and show weakness, or give up and leave all the hard work and money that we did for those strangers. SO its a trick so hard to leave, and there we stay we lie (or hide) the reality to get a promotion, we lie to people on the street to sell them magazines and we lie to ourselves, because we just want to leave cicd as fast as we can and go to Africa to really do something.


BUt we Arrive in Africa and discover that the projects are almost all corrupted, or you are there as a white only to show people how responsible the organization is, or you have many nice ideas and projects but people, money our your weak mind (like mine) doesn’t help, so just give up to do something else. Or we don’t give up because in this place we meet the BEST people we ever met before, people with many dreams and really powerful energy, spirit to change the world, we meet friends, brothers and sisters, boyfriend and girlfriend a (SAFADOS E SAFADAS, SURUBA), and we just dont want to leave those people. YOU SEE HOW MANY TRICKKKKKssss.


I know how fucked you are when you realise HOW THEY PLAY WITH your DREAMs, how fucked you are when you realise that you help that fuck big organization to grow more and more and do not change anything, just the life of some corrupted people. BUT then we stop and look for these POOR PEOPLE THAT WE CALL TEACHERS, what this fucking crazy people get with all what they do (I DONT KNOW) I REALLYYYYY WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND, COULD CHANGE MY LIFE IF THEY EXPLAIN, WHAT HELL THEY GET, they seeing people coming and leaving, and they dont know anything about Africa, they dont know what is to change with their work, they fuck their mind, became crazy and do not know what love means, friendship, dreams, hope and they really dont know what THE WORD VOLUNTEER MEANS.


One day with ‘K’ and ‘L’ (Teacher) I had a personal meeting in the middle way of the course, I didnt have enough money and study. They told me like that:


“You have to show up with 1200 pounds also your behavior is not good for us, you have to change!”


Me: “OK my behavior I can change but I dont have this money.”


They: “Artur we know that the families in South America are very close you can ask our family to give you the MONEYYYY…”


Me: “No I cant, I can change my behavior but I cant ask then all this money”


‘L’: “You know Artur why the oven in the kitchen its not working? Because you didnt work hard selling magasines.”


After I wrote a letter to them, and I said that we are only machines to make money for them, and if I need to change my behavior they should change theirs also, because they need us volunteers as we need them. After i had an another meeting.


‘K’ was screaming ( the way she likes) told me that she dont “give a shit“ the way I think and they dont need us voluteers, years by years is the same… And is not a teenager (me) that will tell her that she needs to change after 10 years working hard…


After that I did a fundraising plan, with conditions to change the team and I should be alone , they accepeted my crazy plan to work 7 days a week making 50 a day in the coldest winter in 30 years. So I just decided to leave when I was doing fundraising in hedon, when after 4 hrs selling magazines I had 15 pounds, and I should get with 4 month 2700 pounds, I thought smoking in the cemitery of the church:


“With 2700 pounds I can go to Africa work 6 month where I want and travel more than 5 month in Africans countries.”


They are really crazy about money. I have never seen people so bad like then, without any human feeling…


They are really crazy I think, but some weeks after they came with a nice job to take care of a teenager from Denmark, or go to work in Newcastle, sitefind and we just forget so many bad things they did and will do, better shut up and do… They always will be there…



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Posted: 26th November 2010



My experience, DNS Tvind 2007-2009

There’s still some anger inside me, even when more than a year has passed, since I finally left DNS-program and Tvind. I had been there for 1,5 years. It was one of the bigger decisions in my life. It was a good decision. giving me a feeling of relief, freedom. Nevertheless I don’t regret joining to the program, although it was really tough time for me. I learned something important in that place, something that I maybe would not learn anywhere else…

As a shy person, who’s thinking low about herself and has always let other people dominate her, it was easy to get drag into that kind of place. A person, who is adjustable, does what she/he is expected and doesn’t protest, is an easy target for manipulation and other harassment which is happening in the place (and what many people in there don’t realise…).

The first year went fine. I was still in favour of the teachers; although I was regarded as too shy and insecure, but at least I wasn’t saying anything against them. It was more like a pity what they were feeling. I guess they only tried to help me by pushing me “to get out of my cover” as to “recover” from my shyness (like it would help…).

I was a naive person still believing on the goodness of the place. But there was something, what happened in the second year, which made me break this image.

In the second year we have the so-called “Teaching Practise”. For me it was difficult to be in my teaching practise place. First of all I didn’t get good along with my practise teacher. I had difficulties in communication with him. One reason behind this was my personal weakness of not been able to speak straight-up and the other one must be because of my practise teachers didn’t really manage his job (which was to train me). I was expecting more guidance, instructions. I got almost none and I had also hard time to ask for it (my own fault).

What was supposed to be “practise” was actually work, where person without experience or knowledge, was expected to gain this qualities from “learning-by-doing”. You were just put there to teach and take care of difficult teenagers. Well, for me it wasn’t so natural to be with and get along with these youngsters… And again the only “advise” I got was the Tvind-kind-of “kitchen psychology”, where I should just “push” my self and “try more”!

It got to the point that I wasn’t feeling good at all. I had a meeting with my practise teacher. I don’t remember exactly why and how, but somehow I ended up talking about the problems what I had had in my family. Stupid of me, as I really didn’t think these things had much to do with the problems in the teaching practise, but he kind of pushed me (common way in Tvind) for this (and I was too weak to protest..). He made a conclusion: these kids reminded me of my bad childhood.

He suggested that I took a break, so I went back to Tvind. In Tvind there is not such a thing like privacy so it wasn’t a surprise that they didn’t keep their mouth shut about my problems either. As I arrived my team members where asking what had happened, cause all they had heard was that I had some problems in my teaching practise, because “my past was coming up”! I got angry. And of course I was talking about some “not so nice” things about my teaching practise teacher to everyone, because he really misunderstood me and I was really annoyed by this…

But in Tvind there’s no freedom of speech. The teachers had heard what I had been talking about this teacher. “You need to realise that you have problems! It’s not Martin who’s the problem, it’s you!” the female headmaster shouted at me. She looked really furious, like I have done some bigger kind of crime.

I was looking for objective discussion of the problem, in an adult way. Instead I got judgement “you are blaming him for your own problems”. This is a common way to solve problems in Tvind. When people had problems with the system or people in the system, it was ALWAYS the problem of the people, never the system or the people in the system. Similar things happened for example also to one of my teammate who also had problems with her teaching practise place. So the saying “things always has two sides”, which was very much used in Tvind, didn’t apply to themselves.

The same method was also in used in the Common Meetings. These were meetings were we, the team, were all sitting in a circle with the headmaster or with another teacher. Some common things were discussed in these meetings. They say these meetings helps to clean up the air in the team and are necessary to solve problems… Well, from my experience I would say the most of the time it had the opposite effect; it made bad atmosphere in team and created more problems.

The teacher’s had the control of the Common Meetings and they were giving an example of the “traditional” Tvind way of solving things; pointing out fingers on the “guilty” one´s, blaming and accusing. And I can tell you things weren’t discussed in a calm, easy way, where everybody was listened to. There were yelling and shouting included by the teachers side (the female headmaster has a serious anger-management problem) and they made sure of one thing; you are wrong, we are right. I was, and some of my team members, in a very disadvantage position, because most of our team members adopted this way of behaving towards each other in these meetings. We were enemies to ourselves.

In general I think one of the biggest problems in Tvind is that they focus too much on the negative sides – they think that when you know the problems then you can develop! But there were no speak about how to solve the problems? Definitely not by blaming or accusing… This primitive way was the only way used to solve things, and when of course it mostly didn’t work, the reason was rather the people than the way; “they weren’t trying hard enough “. So for example when some people wasn’t doing enough cleaning or other common things (which is normal in a team, some people do always less, some people more), they were the “bad guys” and soon the whole team was against them, coming up with more negative things about them… And can you really do better when somebody is all the time telling you what you do wrong? Do you have a change to improve yourself when you are whole the time afraid that you do something wrong again?

I continue with my story. I was lucky to get a second Teaching Practice–place. Actually it wasn’t really Teaching Practise at all, because I wasn’t doing any teaching, but mainly helping out in the kitchen and participating to some free time activities with the children. The meaning behind this was that I would slowly get used to the kids by being around them.

I didn’t really enjoy my time there either, which partly was because of my bad living standards. They didn’t have any room for me in the care homes, so I had to live outside in a caravan (and in the end of the autumn it was really freezing inside there). Toilet and shower was in another building.

One weekend I took a trip to my old Teaching Practice -place to get the final stuff I had left there. And as to say the final goodbye we went out with some friends and colleagues. And yes, I was drinking (which was not allowed). The next morning at 10 am the wife of my ex-teaching practise teacher knocked on my door. She claimed that she just wanted to say goodbye.

Later, when I was back in my new Teaching Practise School, just before going to holiday to Finland, my new Teaching Practise Teacher told me that I wasn’t suitable for the work with the kids and that I should leave. He also asked me if I have done something to the heating system (which was in the basement) of my old school, while I was there that weekend. He wouldn’t say why he was asking about that. From a friend I got to hear that they had had some problems with the heating system after my visit.

When I returned to Tvind after the holiday, there were some rumours going around about me. That I had been drinking was truth (the wife of my ex-teaching practise teacher must have told them), but there was also a rumour about me wanting to hurt my self in the heating place! And no, the students had nothing to do with this rumours –it was the TG-teachers spreading them around… In a Common meeting I had to admit that I had been “frame braking” (=drinking). And in the similar way that people say in these meetings, I also admitted that “I had one drink” (which was of course not the truth and neither was this the only time I was drinking…)

Some time after this I got to the point that I just had to leave the place. I had had enough.
Normally it’s not so easy to leave Tvind; you must have a team-meeting, where this is discussed. Normally this includes that some arguments against this is presented, at least from the teacher’s side. For me it was a bit easier as people actually accepted that I was leaving.

When I told I wanted to leave, the teachers suddenly changed to be really friendly (in a fake way) and gave me really tight bear hugs as goodbyes. “Dns was too tough for you –I mean not too tough, but demanding.“ Well, all I can say that it certainly was too tough, but that was mainly not because of the studies or even the work (except that they were expecting us to be robots with almost no free time at all), but simply how the system works. To survive you need to either agree with that –or pretend to agree.

Volunteer & solidarity worker in Norway, Mozambique and England.     Worked for two years at Winestead Hall, but now severed connections with the cult.

Winestead Hall

He was a volunteer 1996-7 up until the closure.   He was a group leader, but never a member of the teachers group.

Lillehammer

He was a trainee solidarity worker at the hotel in Norway in 1994-5.  He answered an ad and saved up his money.   He wanted to do something for other people.  He paid £2,000 up front.   ‘It was a very str5ange experience  -  very isolated.’

The hotel was dominated by the head Jon Normo.  But Normo suddenly left after falling out with the Teachers Group.  He was married.   Steen Conradsen was sent in to restore the situation.   Subsequently a new head, Tomas, was appointed

Conradsen was s strong character.  ‘He had complete power over all the other members of staff.  They looked up to him in a very strange way.  People quoted his words.  He set the tone.’   At group meetings, he would single people out and point at them.

‘I’m still wondering sometimes why we stuck it.  Two people quit.  A few of us thought about quitting at least once a day.’

In his group there were 13, from Hungary, Finland, Holland, France, Norway….   They had some teaching, but not much   -  a bit of history of Mozambique, etc.  ‘They didn’t encourage that sort of knowledge of education.  They wanted us to learn “organisation”, how to keep things clean and basically run the hotel.’

There was a fund raising period of eight or nine weeks.  They ere expected to raise £150-£160 a day.  ‘ You feel you can’t go home unless you have raised the money.  You are selling for 9 hours a day.  You have to find your own accommodation and hitch around.’   It was winter and very cold.

He went twice to the police and got himself arrested as he had nowhere to stay.  They were in small groups of  four or six volunteers.  They stayed in churches, hotels and people’s houses.  ‘When I think about it now I think how strange it is to run a school on these terms.

‘I can understand how some people who want to change the world might be prepared to take the risk.  But it’s a very strange policy for a school.’

His friend estimates they sold £9,000-£10,000 of postcards each.   It was normally £800 a week per person and they were at the school for 6 months, with at least 9 weeks selling.   ‘To first pay £2,000 and then almost £10,000 seemed crazy.’

They were told that they would raise 5m Kroner, of which 2m went to the school and 3m would be spent on Africa.

Africa

‘We didn’t see very much of the money.  We got five bikes, but they only arrived in the last four weeks of their stay.’  They already had good bikes in Mozambique so it seemed unnecessary expense.  ‘It was crazy, we should have been bought motorbikes or mopeds.

There were two groups of volunteers in Mozambique, The Bush Group and The Beach Group. The Bush Group was at Itoculu village, near Naccala town.  The projects were a family programme and a farm.   ‘At the farm we couldn’t see any kind of help given to the people whatsoever.    It was a huge cashew plantation and employed half the village   It was quite profitable.  I’m not sure if the money was used for development projects or not.’

They were told the farm had been bought by DAPP after the civil war.  Some people had been really upset but it was their own property.

A good solidarity worker could have set up lots of good projects but it was ‘not up to them.’    The project leader was Else-Marie.   She was almost never there.  She lived in the town where there was hot water and electricity. She used to go missing for days at a time.  The solidarity workers were left quite a lot on their own.’  Some of the villagers had farmed for years and there didn’t seem any reason why they shouldlisten to an untrained young white person who knew nothing about farming.

Family programme

They were supposed to be ‘mobilisers.  Some were good and effective.  The job was supposed to involve education, such as health education, new crops, better nutrition, and latrine-building.  There were 180 families.    ‘But there was always a lack of money.  We couldn’t even buy a football.’

‘Then suddenly, there were all these US dollars which were provided to build this huge DAPP house and office.   They had previously been houses in huts.  ‘I still don’t really know why or where the money came from.’

THE UFF- THE TVIND EMPIRE- THE TEACHERS GROUP

The Tvind empire is one of the press stamped name of a large amount of associations, foundations, companies, schools etc who are seemed in different kind of relations. They appear to have something in common. The most common are UFF (Country aid from People to People), DRH (The Travelling Folk High school) and Tvind.

The Teachers Group

The real name is the teachers group (TG). TG is a top-down managed cult who consists of idealistic members who are ruling the whole Tvind Empire. They’ve got several collective spread out over the whole world. You can be a member on trial for a couple of years, or write a contract for lifetime. As a teacher in Denmark you get your salary from the State, but 95% of the salary are put in to an account that you haven’t to access to. But the money isn’t important, it’s that they want you to sign a contract for lifetime, both on your money and your time. You won’t have any leisure time, but the collective will decide what you should do.
When you’ve signed in to the TG they exhort you to burn pictures and address books. It’s motivated by the risk of pursuit against both the TG and the private. When you’ve chosen to sign the contract for lifetime all your assets are given to the TG, as well ass all your future incomes.

The communism

The TG gets a lot of its ideology from Mao Tsetung and the communistic North Korea. They’ve understood the meaning of money and often talk about combat the capital with capital, i.e. one needs a lot of money to spread ones ideas.

Work for Africa

When I came in connection with the movement I had never heard about it before. I sat one day and looked after job in the papers when I got to see an ad with the headline “Work for Africa”. I would not get salary, but my expenses for dwelling and food covered, it said. First I would go to a school, then go down to Angola as a solidarity worker and finally home again for a period of “after work”. It seemed great, something meanful to put some effort in and furthermore adventurous. When I after someday got in contact with the contact person of the movement in Gothenburg, it came front that the work not just was unpaid. I would also pay a fee of approx. 20 000 crowns. It came first as kind of a shock, but if you saw it as a payment for a 16 months adventure and a contribution to the Third World, it was not so expensive, I thought.

The Travelling Folk High school

The Travelling Folk High school exists on several places, all obeying under the TG. The one I would go to is in Norway on a scale. When we came there it was a big party with candles and raisins on the table. All was enthusiastic and expectant. The headmaster was speaking, it was inspiring respect but still friendly, and I thought that this seemed to be my thing. People were caring about each other. Fairly soon we got our responsibility areas. The school lies in the old part of the Hornsjö
Mountain hotel, an after Swedish conditions fairly shabby hotel. It’s owned and runs of the TG. The school’s maintenance and drifting, plus the hotels swimming pool is runned by the pupils. It also happens that a group of pupils receives in assignment to handle the entire maintenance of the hotel during some weeks. This in order to learn oneself how it’s to handle unexpected tasks.

Responsibility

This procedure is very typical for the school’s/ TGs methods. These practical lessons became sometimes fairly absurd, for example when an 18-years old without economic experience would handle and be liable for the schools reduce food budget. Myself became responsible for the school’s maintenance. It involved to organising one building weekend per month, plus an entertainment afternoon per week. Then I would have prepared so that 30 – 40 persons could occupy themselves effectively a whole weekend respective an afternoon. How would I be able to know which tools, and how many persons that were needed in order to swap a rotten window? Or fix a ragged tumbler? Or put a new clinker floor in the hall? And all should take place at the same time. It was time for it at the schedule, but it wasn’t enough. We had also to work on breaks, evenings and sometimes nights.
Failure – guiding

At first I really did my very best to make it work. But after a while I realised that it actually wasn’t the meaning to succeed. If you succeeded against all the odds, there was always something that wasn’t perfect. The “acknowledgement” that one had succeeded came with another task, just to make sure that we definitely wouldn’t make it next time.
Why weren’t we allowed to succeed? The TG use problems and reverses in order to control its members and pupils/ volunteers. If you failed, this could be brought up at a general meeting where you first were grinned down in a mill of accusations. Then they went further on with to analyse why one was as completely incompetent. Maybe it would be due to the bourgeois growth one has had? That one had never has got to take responsibility anything? That one had never has got to feel the useful and solidarity group pressure within a collective?

General meetings

It existed a rule at the school who said that all must have an opinion. All must take position. Gee what I thought that it sounded good. This was a school where one took each other each other seriously.
Some of the pupils could sit quiet too long on a general meeting, maybe just because he hadn’t really made up his mind, or maybe he not didn’t even get what the general meeting was all about. Then the headmaster began to question him out. If he then came with the “wrong” answer i.e. had another opinion than what TG had, began an overwhelming arguing. When I before spoke about being grinned down in a mill, this arguing can be compared with pulverisation.
The attack from TG is always well planned and synchronised. Above all the headmaster was a very doughty agitator. We had often-general meetings. They could be about everything, but often about more or less constructed problems. I have always have had difficult in order to hold quiet which did that I ended up in the loophole.
A general meeting could go on very long. Afterwards one was entirely exhausted and it twisted in the head of all the words and arguments. On some way, despite the enormous group pressure, I knew I what I thought, but I couldn’t argue for it. The TG had crumbled my arguments so that the words no longer were something worth. This happened at almost all the general meetings.
At first I really thought that I was wrong. If I couldn’t argue so that people understood, something had to be wrong with my opinions. But on the evenings when I lay down and would fall asleep after a general meeting, I went through the entire meeting again, and I realised that it wasn’t so. I began slowly but certainly see that there wasn’t possible to win against the TG.
The general meetings were not a part of a democratic process. It didn’t matter if I was good or
bad of arguing. The exit was determined on advance of the TG, and they kept on until they had come where they wanted. This meant that sometimes one could go on for days. During my time it was never necessary, people were subdued in max 6 hours. But I know that in Tvind in Denmark and on the Red House schools in England, meetings has been going on for up to 2 days without sleep.

Manipulation

I remember especially one general meeting in the end of my time at the school, when it took long time for me to understand what it was the headmaster really meant. I sat hyper concentrated and first after half an hour I realised his opinion in the question. Then something strange happened.
When I at last grasped what he meant, I took it to me like a truth. His opinion passed by my critical “opinion filter” and took place like as the truth in my head.
It was first in the evening, when I thought it all through, that I realised: “stop and proof”, I don’t think like that. Then when I also then thought about the fear many of the other felt in order not to have the correct answer when the headmaster asked them out, the thing was clear. This was as clear as noonday a case of brainwashing. You could see pupils that were as white as a sheet of fear to end up in the loophole of the headmaster and the TG. They were happy if they had got the TGs opinion at all when they got the question. The neither had the time nor dared to critical judge if the TGs opinion was agreed with theirs. They were just happy if they didn’t have to be stoned.
Then I didn’t really know anything about brainwashing, mind control or “thought reform”, as it’s called in Swedish. I could just establish that this was a simple, but alas as effective technique in order to get people to absorb a certain opinion. I remember that I was ever so impressed of that the teachers were such good judges of characters. In some way they always knew what was going on at the school.

Espionage

One evening we were a gang pupils, both new and old, who were sitting down talking. The funny thing was that almost the same topic was brought up at the morning assembly the day after. Not exactly, but it led front to the same thing, to the same problems. I didn’t reflect so much over it just then.
But it became current again one evening when someone knocked on my door. It was one of the girls in a group who had been at the school a lot longer than I. She was wanted to talk about a thing that had happened during the day. She was afraid that I had misunderstood her and wanted for safety’s sake explains some things.
She began with to make sure, very seriously, that the headmaster didn’t send her. I laughed and said that I didn’t think so either. We talked and had a nice time for awhile. But when she would
go, she became serious again and protested to, once again, that she wasn’t sent by the headmaster.
That had me to very laboriously begin to open my eyes and see how things really were going on at the school. The headmaster had after all a lot of spies among the faithful students, whom he sent out to get to know what was happening. The headmaster and the TG knew all the time what the pupils discussed and which opinions they had.

Collect money

Besides our responsibility areas and the studies, we were also supposed to sell postcards for average 8 200 crowns per month and person.
When we were in Oslo for the first time, we had to fundraise in total 66 000 crowns in five days.
It was completely impossible. We were out in the streets from 09.00 o’clock in the morning until 21.00 o’clock in the evening. After that we ate in some restaurant where we had begged for food. At 19.00 o’clock we had to be out again to sell in our predestined areas. At 21.00 o’clock we went to a gym where we lived. We finished the day by study for some hours.
When I for the first time went to Oslo to sell postcards I had never heard anything negative about the movement. I had of course seen some things that where weird, but when I asked they had answers for everything.

Bad reputation

After a day out on the streets of Oslo I was totally exhausted. People almost spitted at us, and told us one bad story after another about the school and the movement. After three days I pulled the handbrake and demanded the headmaster and the teachers of an explanation. When we started at the school, we had had to answer if we were doing drugs or not. Now it was time for them to tell about their sins.
I was furious and asked why we had been thrown out in the streets, without the knowledge about the truth about the reputation of the movement. The headmaster was very upset and said that I didn’t have the right to accuse them.
It took from 9.00 o’clock in the morning until 21.00 in the evening to outline for the bad reputation. Partly on direct questions from us about things we had heard in the town, and partly as an answer to my request that they would put all the cards on the table. We would overhear anyway sooner or later. On the evening everybody was satisfied. I was enough pleased in order to once again feel convinced.
The time went and many strange things happened. I was still strong and it could go very hot on the general meetings. I was, despite all, still devoted – but also critical. It came often-front pupils that wanted talk. I knew that they were sent by the headmaster and played along in this absurd game.

Doubts

After a while I observed that I was left more in peace, if I was walking around and looked as excessively happy as everybody else. When I would go home for Christmas, I remember that I had hard to manage the TGs mocking grin when the saw our joy over to go home to our families for celebrating Christmas. The TG would to be sure not go home on some ridiculously middle-class keeping of Christmas. They would have general meeting in Tvind and put up the strategy for the coming year. During the Christmas days I had got the time to think. When I came back after the holiday a lot of new strange things happened, but then there was no longer time to think.
One day I demanded “time out” and said that I didn’t want to take part of any lessons. I wanted to get the time to think through what this school/ movement stood for and what I wanted and could stand for myself.
It wasn’t easy to think in peace, because the headmaster sent pupils who where suppose to talk me into being sensible every second minute. I hid in the attic and got enough of calm in order to part everything up, and to in writing formulate constructive criticism against the school and the TG.
I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t insane. I rang up a former pupil at the school, who I knew was very critical. With her support I could establish that it wasn’t me, but the school it was something wrong with. I decided quit.

Separation anguish

After have talked to the others I began laboriously to pack. In the head all the memories passed by, and the painful was, that now it wasn’t all the boring and heart- rending I thought of, but just the nice and fun memories.
I had become very attached to the other pupils and didn’t want to leave them. It began to go around in my head, and I thought that there was a shame if the TG would actuate me to leave all these wonderful people. If I stay, I do violence on myself. But if I leave them, I do as much violence on my feelings.
Then I can equally be left together with my friends. I had anyway found a lot of nice things here at the school. If I just could ignore the headmaster and the TG, pretend that they don’t exist, then it would be all right. The other pupils were happy that I would try to stay.
But the TG wasn’t happy and called to a general meeting the same evening. Now would all the doubts come up on the table, not just mine, but everybody’s doubts. I was now on the limit to a breakdown. I had neither eaten nor slept properly the last days. The psychical pressure was on the limit of what I could manage. Sometimes everything became black around me and I just heard
the voices. The smallest emotional dissipation would be able to make me collapse, so I decided not to say a word. Despite that the TG provoked it didn’t appear any criticism. The pupils knew what would happen if they opened their mouths.
I mumbled something about that just now I didn’t care about which methods and which philosophy the TG had. I just wanted to try to stay tuned along with the nice people that I had met at the school. It went a swish of recognition among the pupils, because it was exactly the way most of them reasoned.

The defection

That night I didn’t get a wink of sleep. The following day I didn’t hear a word of what was said at the lessons. In the evening I talked with the others, and said that now it’s enough. No more life under the TGs wings for me. I was by the way not the smallest interested of going to Africa in their management any longer.
I slept at the station and in the morning I took the train to Oslo. There I had made an appointment with some friends in the evening. I would stay with them for a couple of days.
I felt all other than good when I came to Oslo. I stumbled around during the day, afraid of myself and with a persecution complex that almost got me to hit a guy who was just asking for light. Thoughts about suicide twisted around in my head.

Dan Lindbergh

by Kine Aune

It all started in Norway when I was accused of rape 16 years old. I was sent to Peterslyst Ridecenter in Denmark. I encountered an empty school, because all the other students were in Turkey. They gave me a room in the camp school and I stayed there without an eiderdown freezing for two weeks. I asked the teacher on guard for an eiderdown but nothing happened. There were four houses in the area one teacher lived in each house with the students. I was afraid and nervous and there was nobody I could talk to. I was not allowed to phone home to my family during the first two weeks because the teacher on guard thought my family needed some time off.

When the school returned home they all rushed at me and I had a brake down number one. I did not do it on purpose but I was punished. I had to do the dishes for a week and here I met the only normal teacher on the school. She told me stories about the school, which I almost could not believe. She warned me of continuing on the school and advised me to go home to Norway as fast as possible.

The next day I got a room in the white house – as they called it. The next day there was a meeting about me. During the meeting I was told that I could go home to Norway for a weekend and a guardian was appointed for me. I thought the guardian was a person to trust so I told her that I felt like running off. I should never have trusted her. Now I was not allowed to go home at all.

Shut off from the world I became reticent and difficult to handle. On the first day of school I saw a teacher seizing a 12 year old student by the throat and without thinking I knocked the teacher down telling him that it is not allowed for teachers to attack students. I was punished with the most severe punishment of the school: I was whipped on my hands and legs with a horsewhip. Afterwards I panicked and ran away to my room just crying all the time. I was not allowed to call my mother. I started to smoke and I tried to kill myself. Fortunately I did not succeed.

After this incident I was very exhausted and it was hard getting out of bed but I was forced to get out as the daily routines under all circumstances should be kept up no matter how sick I was. The day started at 7.00 and ended at 18.00 when I went to bed. I did not eat anything. Luckily I had a lot of weight to loose. During 6 months I went from 140 kilos to 85 kilos. I asked permission to see a psychologist but the answer was no. All my own clothes were confiscated. The rules of the school said that you were not allowed to wear your own clothes. I had to put on the clothes they decided were appropriate. During four weeks I had an inflammation in the inner ear and could not get any help until the day my eardrum burst then I was allowed to see a doctor. The only bad thing was I was not allowed to see the doctor alone – they had to accompany me – so I could not tell the doctor about my situation.

Secretly I got hold of a mobile telephone and contacted a psychologist in Silkeborg. I should never have done that because when they discovered it all the students and teachers surrounded me and shouted a lot at me for a long time. So that did not help me. I decided not to give up and to do something. Finally I got the letter I had been waiting for during two months. It said that I was found not guilty. I packed all my things and thought I could go home but no I had to stay there.

Today I believe that it had been better to spend the time in a prison in Norway than to stay at the Tvind school. I stayed at the school for two years and was beaten every other week. In the end I was afraid to do anything. I completely lost the ability to talk and do the things I used to like. I could not go to a dentist when I needed treatment.

The days went by and I was no longer a human being, but deep inside me a tremendous force started growing. On my 18th birthday I thought: Now they can no longer do anything to me. I am a norwegian citizen and now I had come of age. I went to a meeting with them and asked for permission to leave, but they refused plainly. I went into town and talked to my psychologist who helped me. For the first time during two years I was able to call my mother and that was a very good feeling.

I have had a lot of bad experiences but something positive has also arisen. I learned to look at things differently and because of Tvinds treatment today I believe nothing can harm me any longer. I have experienced the worst things possible being a prisoner of the Tvind Movement. I travelled a lot of times to other countries with the school but without freedom it is not fun to travel.

It took 6 years before I could live again normally. I had a diploma from Tvind but it was no good in Norway. I had a lot of problems and every time somebody offers me a chance to go to school I start crying. You might say I have got a school fobia.

I have got scars in my mind and on my body because of my stay at the Tvind school. If I had known about Tvinds methods – what I later learned – I would have chosen to go to prison instead of going to Tvind. If I had been to prison I would have been released much sooner than I did. To day I sometimes get letters from the school about the so called reunions but I will never go back to Tvind again.

Two years on that school was like hell with blows and kicks from the other students and the teachers. I would not wish even for my worst enemy to have to go through what I experienced during those years. It is still difficult for me to talk about what happened at Tvind. But I try my best to tell people here in Rjukan about what happens at Tvind. I wish to thank you for trying to help the young people who are at Tvind. Maybe Tvind will come to an end at some time – one can always hope.

Many regards

Kine Aune

kineaune@sol.no

THIS IS THE TVIND SECT

by Anne Ellingsen. Leader of The National Movement against Tvind Norway
(1993)

The sect which I want to draw your attention to is not a “tradttlonal” religious sect. In fact its ideology is atheistic. Nevertheless it has got all the characteristics of a destructive sect, and I suggest that experiences from the Tvind sect might be useful in the study of sects in general.

The guru on the top of the Tvind organisation directs the extremely disciplined sect members activities. The organization is obsessed with money and power. Apostates are threaten and followed. Lying is commonplace, internal and externally. The members of the sect end up, as a result of a constant “brainwash” process, like fanatical believers – in this case in PRODUCTION.

Characteristically enough one of Tvind’s institutions is called “The Travelling Folk High School on the Road to Victory in the Struggle for Production and in the Struggle for the Peoples Welfare Frontline Institute”.

The aim of this “school” is according to one of the sects publications “the reconquering of the People’s soul, its beauty, its power, its strength and its triumphant power, Frontline Institute will concentrate its efforts on the present struggle for the peoples reconquest of its thin soul”.

Tvinds main sponsor for its more than 40 “schools” is the DanIsh state.

In 1987, former Danish Minister of Education (Mr Friedrikshol) said to the Danish newspaper Politiken: “I can testify that Tvind’s tactics are to talk and talk, complain and harass, threaten again and again. They are clever and they are dangerous. They are totalitarian Marxists with an unholy motive behind their organization”.

Danish authorities increasingly have come to feel the impact of a sect that cunningly has exploited the liberal legislation of the country. All that is needed to found a school that will be 80 % financed by the state, is 50 signatures. By now the Tvind sect has got 40 schools, and has received more than 1 billion Danish krone from the Danish state. Its activities are by no means limited to the country where it originated. Today the Tvind sect has got properties and companies in more than 45 countries, and made at least 115 countries all over the world the destinations for the tours organized by their so called “travelling schools”.

In most of Europe the boxes used for collecting second-hand clothes by the organizations HUMANA or UFF (Developing aid from people to people) is the sects most well known trade mark. Even though Tv!nd as such (as usual with Tvind-organizations), denies any links from HUMANA and UFF to their mother organization, we can document that the same handful of people stand behind all Tvind enterprises.

HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

(Missing section)

……are expected to subscribe to so called “life time contracts. They then donate all of their time and earnings until the age of 67.

TROUBLE IN SCANDINAVIA? NO PROBLEM

Right from the first years of expansion, in the early 70s, critical voices had begun to rise against theTvind school and its activities. Former pupils and teachers accused the school for being authoritarian. It was criticized for its carelessness with the security of its members lives on the tours to Africa and Asia. I t also was increasingly accused for using “brainwashing” as the main technique of maintaining the control over its members.

ACCIDENTS

By the beginning of the eighties several serious accidents, including the death of many young students, had occurred. A terrible boat accident in 1983 became a scandal both in Norway and Denmark. In this accident, eight untrained youngsters were sent out in an old sailing ship. The ship was ordered out from the safe haven of Dover, to cross the Northern Sea in a hurricane. Not one of the 8 survIved.

The deaths of these 8 Danish and Norwegian young boys and girls gave the Scandinavian peoples a shock, and are typical examples of Tvind’s total lack of care for the sect members lives. After the accident, the multimillionaire sect claimed that the students’ corpses should be brought home on the cost of their parents, as the sect did not any longer recognize any responsibility for them.

Tvind’s official spokesman, Poul Joergensen, often provokes opinion by being cool and arrogant when confronted with accidents that have happened to former Tvind-pupils. Like all members of the Tvind ‘teachers group’ he always tends to put the blame on the victims themselves.

CARIBBEAN TAX PARADISES AND WEAPON STORAGES

Former members have for long claimed that Tvind-leaders are living in luxury on Caribbean tax-paradise islands for the money collected by the Tvind “charity” organizations UFF and HUMANA.

According to the Danish newspaper “Jyllandsposten” a former leader of one of Tvind’s “schools” in 1981 contacted police, press and authorities, warning about gun-exercises and weapon storage at Tvind-owned properties in Denmark. Young men from Mozambique were said to be trained at Tvind-owned properties by Danish Tvind leaders. The Tvind leader, himself a professional soldier, was able to describe the arms he had seen in detail. According to his testimony the reason why he came to know about the training of .soldiers at all was his military background. He had. been asked to train the soldiers.

Tvind itself denied all such assertions.

The response of the Danish Minister of Justice caused much anxiety when it was known that he had been stopping the police’s action before their search at the Tvind properties where the arms were said to be stored in large quantities.

Danish intelligence Service also destroyed the material from 3 years of phone taps on the Tvind organization, an action quite puzzling for the Danish public. The destruction was an order directly from the Minister of Justice. The reason for taping Tvind had mainly been police theories of Tvind having close contact with the Palestinian terrorist group PFLP.

In the question of overseas investments, journalists in many countries have solid proofs that Tvind really have established themselves in the Caribbean. And in Central America Danish Tvind leaders are living on big farms in colonial style.

ABROAD

When Tvind really started to get a bad reputation in Denmark, it had for long been focusing its attention, outside of Denmark. It had bought land and established companies abroad, often by manipulating local authorities or by direct unlawful actions. In Australia, USA and the small Caribbean island of St. Vincent the resistance has been hard. At St. Vincent, in 1985, after Tvind’s unlawful acquisition of the largest property on the island, Prime Minister John Mitchell expelled the group from the island and even broke the diplomatic relations with Denmark. Before he did so, he pronounced to a Danish TV team: “They are a subversive group. I fear that they will develop like “Jonestown” in Guyana on this island. I regret to say that my people is very hostile to the Danes, and even in fact to Denmark as a country”.

This and other scandals abroad where Denmark’s reputation has been severely damaged because of Tvind, has been reflected in Danish mass media. Each scandal arises in the Danish opinion the question of why actions are not taken against Tvind. But Danish authorities do not seem to want or be able to stop Tvind. Instead, its massive financial support continues.

Tvind has now got huge properties in Central America, on several Caribbean islands, in Africa, USA and Europe. For each new investigation previously unknown dimensions are revealed.

HIDING THE LINK TO THE MOTHER ORGANIZATION

In Denmark today, different Tvind-achievements like the 40 schools, the movements hotels, shipping companies, art centres, zoological gardens etc. are often trying to hide their links to their mother organization. It might be totally hidden from the students or workers at the institutions in the initial stages of their engagement, that they are in fact on their way to become members of the Tvind sect. It is surely even more difficult to control the Tvind enterprises in countries where Tvind is not so well known. I appeal to anyone who discover Tvind institutions around the world to report it to our organizations.

CONCLUSION:

Close contacts with parliamentary leaders and bureaucrats have been documented in Danish newspapers. The Danish state has so far supported the Tvind system with 1 billion DKR. This support has made it possible for Tvind to expand to the rest of the world. The sect is dangerous and should be watched with attention by authorities and private persons where ever it operates.

SOURCES for this outline have been:

-Norwegian and Danish Broadcasting
-Finnish tV2
-Vrij Nederland, French version,
-Cayman Compass
-Free Cayman Press
-the St. Vincentian
-the 2 hour long critical documentary film Ps Sejrens Vej – ”On the Road to Victory”. (Danish Broadcasting company 1985)
-the book “Flere Visne Blomster” (“More Dying Flowers”), wrItten by 20 former teachers and pupils in the tvind—sect (Copenhagen.1981)
-Norwegian newspapers: “Aftenposten”(18.12.90.,9.4.92.28. 1.93.), .“VG” (5.2.83.9.5.83,2,3.10.84.,23.12.90.),”Dagbladet” (30.3,85.), “Adresseavisen”(dec.91), Vart Land(11.11.92.,l.1.93.), “Bergens TidendeTM(3.6.92.,26.6.92).
-Danish newspapers: “Politiken” (16.12.87-.), Jyllandsposten (21.9.91,-8.1.89), “Fyens Stiftstidende (6.4.92.), “Ekstra Bladet” (4.7.8., April 91).
-the Danish and Norwegian trade unions’ magazines: “Stof og Saks” (dec.92) “Magasinet” (nr. 1 1993).

My own notes from a one year stay at a Tvind “school” in Ulfborg, Denmark and a travel by the “school” to India 1982/83.

Tvind’s own material, pamphlets, posters and books.

Anti-Tvind organizations have been formed in Norway and Denmark. their addresses are:

the movement against tvind cof Bent Johannesen Valmuevej 8
( 8800 Viborg
DENMARK
(Phone: 86 62 09 64)

the natIonal movement against Tvind
P.b. 66, 1960 Nesbru
NORWAY
(Phone 22 23 75 11)

We welcome everyone who have information on Tvind to contact our organizations. We also welcome new members, or people who simply want to support our work.

I haven’t even thought of Tvind since my experiences in 1995. I was travelling anyway when I bumped literally into a poster, I thought this was it a ticket to my dreams which the school did eventually fill. There were various things on offer and I booked a flight straight away to Denmark…Things went down hill from there but my rosy view on life and with my disregard for my own safety I went blundering in without a thought. As I had no money my first task was to get to Berlin, it was subjected that I hitch hike and as I didn’t have a penny and had only a ONE WAY ticket I didn’t have much choose. When I got to Berlin I had to go to a certain underground train station to get picked up….It was 2am and I nearly got taken for a prostitute, whilst I was waiting! ….I was trained to talk crap and get money selling postcards. After I had raised £2000 three months later I had the luxury of getting a train back to Denmark.
The whole situation didn’t suit and I felt intimidated and was aware that the funds were gained illegitimately one way or the other. One day my group went to another school and I learned of the Teacher training college, there was a group going to India overland (my dream) although I was sad not to do the Africa trip I opted to change which was agreed and I joined a new group. Fortunately for me they were well into there fundraising and many people that had fundraised already had left with nothing. There wasn’t much time and I wasn’t a favourite person having joined at the last minuet. There were 20 people in this team and they had done allot of work before me.
It was obvious everyone was ripping off money, but I wanted this trip so much. We had to pray on the public, buying roses off the market to sell in blocks of flats, sell postcards on the streets, anything to get cash. We were sent in groups of 5 to different countries, Sweden, Norway, Germany, then some of us had to ‘Clunce’ a term we used to get free accommodation (small schools, churches, even peoples houses……then there was food, free breakfast, lunch and dinner from hotels, burger bars etc.) when I look back it was horrendous.
In the school itself the ‘students’ were expected to do all the maintenance work, cook, clean and teach by putting any old shit on the college internet..nothing was corrected, marked, there definitely wasn’t any teacher training.
When we finally left for India we lost two more people in Germany, they had had enough! I only stayed to for my dreams. The trip itself didn’t go without problems, there were allot of messy people and being the last person to join the team I ended up on the notoriously BAD bus. The vehicle itself was older than me and It was a total bodge job where we had gutted its insides to make beds etc. I had to close myself off from everyone on that bus, there were two manic depressives, a violent guy, two brainwashed teachers and jimmy who was lovely but timid. Periodically we all had to get off the bus to experience the countries, cultures etc however we had limited funds and were expected to ‘Clunce’ our way, praying on the most generous and poor people in the world. We were welcomed every time but had nothing to give. By this time we were all living in forth hand clothes from the Tvind empire, and everything we owned had been adopted for the purpose of Tvind.
There is so much to tell, I’m only skirting the edges of what I can remember, so whilst we were on/off this bus we had no contact, no mobile or anyone to save us If anything went wrong..We were lost to everyone and everything and we were travelling on the seat of our pants. Myself and two other girls ended up in a remote village near Karachi in Pakistan where no one there had seen a white person in there lives, we got taken in by a lovely family but there was all sorts of riots in the village before we were finally rescued. I am very grateful to that family because no one new what to do with us…woman didn’t even go into the town, a very frightening situation!
Once in India I did the four weeks we had looking around the country (Id already been to India and had a trip of old haunts planned) when I met back up with the Bus in Deli I told them I was not travelling with them again so they left me there and that was the last I heard from them, my mum put £300 pounds in the bank so I could stay for a bit then I got a flight back home.
If anything had happened to me I don’t think for one minuet they would have done anything to find me or my body, how could they? they had absolutely no idea where the ‘students’ were or what was happening to them.
I’m glad I did it but not with Tvind, the whole experience bar the overland trip was horrid, I have never contacted anyone since and I’m glad to have had the presence of mind to do the trip and not get suckered in to the ‘cult’. That is exactly what it is, there was obviously nothing more than a massive ploy to make a limited few very rich, all these rumours were flying around then and I put up with it for my own gain, im sorry to say. My intentions were good and I wanted to help people in the poor countries and give aid. After reading some of the Mozambique experiences I’m glad I changed courses.
My advice is not to do it even for a dream, find something else, I had a very lonely experience which took the best part of a year. You have to be strong and pig headed and be prepared to leave at all costs if you really still want to go through with it.

Hello,
November 6th 2002
I`m Franz from Austria and I`m a volunteer in DRH Norway. Now I`m with my team fundraising in Stavanger(4 people, 4 countries). We ask ourselves what happens to the fundraised money. We hope that you can tell us…….We also want to know why do you think that UFF is a sect. I personally think that the TG are acting quite strange and uniformed, but I don`t think they are a sect. I try to find out what is the point about UFF and I help you can help me with this research.
November 12th 2002
We are back in school since saturday evenning. It`s a little bit better here than standimg outside in the street. But the basic things, going on in my head haven`t change. We refused to fundraise at saturday. Instead we went to Oslo to discuss with the team there. We all agreed on the plan to keep the money. We haven`t banked it,but we still have it. Many of us have concerns (it`s not legal, it`s not good playing with the money, we create a war and we are over 4 months in theschool,…), but finally we made it. But we didn`t make any decissions when to hand over the money. Most of the people here believes that they can changes. I personally fear that this is impossible. So we decieded more or less to hand out the money when there are some changes.
2 members of the TCE-team were also there. It was really frustrating to talk to them. Animals get a better treatment then they. Sent out to make a target, that at least for 3 out of 5 people is impossible to make. When they don`t make, it`s just their fault, because they don`t try it hard enough. I felt so pissed off after talking to them…
When Gert(male, marreid with Sissel, the school inspector, both members of TG, 3 children) come back from his evening sunday night heard that we won`t give him the money, he went white and red of anger. He shouted around: “you can`t blackmail me. There won`t be any meetings before the money is not handed over…” It was funny to watch him, and his reaction showed exactly what is all about: money, nothing else than making money.
Yesterday evening he dropped into the classroom to start a discussion. There were less people around, because many people were afraid to join. That was a pitty, because if we would discuss with him as one team, we would be able to make more pressure.
During the discussion it seemed like we would give up. We deciede to have a meeting afterwards. Gert made clear that changes just can happen within the program. The meeting looked like that: Gert was talking and talking and talking, always round the point, never really saying anything. That was it. But we decieded to have 4 more meetings on different issues (how to treat people, organisation, ecconomy & fundraising). By the way, you get the numbers of “our” ecconomy after our meeting.
We haven`t hand over the money, and we will put always just 2 or 3 things on the table, that he can`t go so easily around the point. We will prepare very good before each meeting and we will at least try to stand as one team. So maybe we have a little chance. Actually I don`t believe it.
Anyway 3 people decieded to quit nearly for sure. And- big suprise- I`m among them.
We don`t won`t to leave now, because we want to wait for the TCE-team. We even the crazy idea to go fundraising for them. Call us totallly insane, but we cannot accept that they get treat so bad. We won`t give up our dream of making good volunteer work. So we prepare to change the organisation, and
make a plan of going somewhere for our own.
But because we just can work on that in the evening and in the night, we nearly get no sleep. It`s quite a hard time now, but it has to be done.
There is at least with me a thing going on with trust. I don`t trust other organisations, because their discription of their work sounds similar to HPP. It is also clear that development work is a big business. Okay, I think we have choosen the worst, but other organisation also cheat and steal.
One of us has spend a lot of money in the school. Is there a possibility to get this money back?
Anyway we need now any support we can get, so thanks a lot.
Many of us are in this programm because they get a “Scholarship”. S o they paid a little bit less but the school is still terrible expensive because we have to fundraise. Nobody from our team made NetUp, so we are slaves, who are free to go.
We, who are leaving, have also prepare to “fundraise”. That means we have to find a place to live for free in a country with good average salary, and find work there. Norway wouldn`t be such a bad country.
Anyway thanks a lot for your informatins and your support

I’m 24 years old and from Germany I was participating in the development-instructor program of Humana from March 2001 until April 2002. I made it through everything and my experience was basically a positive one throughout the whole program. Sure, some things often seemed to be a little bit shady but no organisation is perfect.

As a part of raising the money for the program fee I was working at the sorting centre of “UFF Butikkene” in Klofta/Norway from January until February 2001. At that point of my engagement with Humana I was really dedicated, that was probably the reason why I could endure horrible working conditions and an insane manager for 2 months. I don’t want to go into details now, otherwise it might end up being one of those crazy stories you get to read in your guestbook.

I don’t know if you know anything about the organisation NetUp which I think poses one of the main problems in this matter. Shortly described, NetUp offers work to people who don’t have the money to pay the program fee. It works together with all the DRH-schools and places the volunteers as workers in sorting centres, second-hand shops, etc. in Europe and the US. NetUp also organizes places to stay for the workers and is actually responsible for the administration of everything. The basic deal is that you, as a volunteer, raise money for yourself to be able to pay the program fee. The only catch is that you never get to see the money you earn since it gets directly wired to the school you want to start your program in. You should even pay for all the living expenses yourself while working at the specific place. In my case I received some pocket money from the manager of the sorting centre. It wasn’t much but covered my expenses for food. The pocket money was later deducted from my salary. I chose this way of raising the money because I didn’t want to pay anything out of my own pocket and I thought by doing NetUp I could actually do something good at the same time.

Basically the problem started whilst I was at the school doing the 1st period. After one month being into the program NetUp wired the money I had earned in Norway to the school. But it was far not enough money and didn’t comply with the actual amount of money I thought I had earned (I had been given a written information concerning the official amount I had raised from Klofta at the end of my working period. This amount was also stated in the tax form I had received later form the tax authorities in Norway) I was mentioning this to the Co-Headmaster and she promised to contact NetUp to sort it out. But then this issue was put on hold, I went to Africa with having only paid about one third of the actual program fee. After my return the school gave me a scholarship for the rest of the program fee. Case closed I thought.

But after having come back to Germany I started to receive strange letters from the tax authorities in Norway. It seemed that they wanted me to pay an amount of approx 625 EUR for some reason. I couldn’t figure out why since all the letters were in Norwegian. After the sixth letter I decided to write back to them asking a letter in English to be able to understand what was going on. I promptly received an answer. Those 625 EUR are tax-arrears of the salary I was supposed to earn in Norway. I haven’t found out why there are actually some tax-arrears I have to pay. But the outline is that if I won’t pay this money Norway will report this to the authorities in Germany and I might face a court trial or something. They also forwarded that letter I had written to UFF Norway to get a statement from them. This week I got an e-mail from the tax officer in Norway who told me that UFF would refuse to pay this money. Now it’s up to me to either pay it or face persecution from authorities in Germany. I tried to contact NetUp and UFF but I haven’t got a reply so far.

My opinion is that since I didn’t receive a single dime out of those two months of really hard work, I don’t have to pay this amount at all. Why pay tax arrears if I haven’t received anything?? The only problem is that I threw away that contract I made with UFF. That’s why I placed that message in your guestbook. Maybe someone who worked there too might read this message and might still be in the possession of the contract. I believe that NetUp is illegal anyways, because many of the volunteers working on behalf of NetUp are non EU-citizens and therefore would need a working permit to work in Sweden, Germany or Norway. I heard from a friend which is from Poland and worked in Sweden at a shop of UFF that none of the people working there had had any working permits. All of them had been from countries in Eastern Europe. After Amdi Pedersen got arrested they were thinking of closing down the whole organization but apparently it is still up and running.

This will be all for now. BUT!!! – In case you’ll consider quoting this on any of your pages at Tvindalert I want you to ask me first for permission. I wrote this all to you because I really believe in serious journalism. Most of the people I had met whilst being at the school and in Africa were great people and capable of doing development work. There are many black sheep though. I think if you would take a closer insight view on NetUp you might find out that many things are not according to the law. Maybe there lies the secret of all the dirty money which goes through Humana and the TG.

C

obs :last 11-03-2008 and 12-03.2008 in the news paper came me denouces have good news for you about bussiness clothes they go to lituania same clothes new big brand names GUCCI EMPORI ARMANI ETC the stores in norway give for free old collection they humana send to lituania to make new label and they put again in marcket in africa in brasil BIG PRICE the truck driver from lituania pass this information and i go give this information to news paper next sounday 16-03-2008 maybe i go need your help because i hunt put humana out of portugal and norway in short time i go to TELEVISION IN PORTUGAL AND I HUNT GIVE INTERVIEW IN PORTUGUESE AND ENGLISH TO THEY PASS IN NORWAY end you hunt please send email o call me