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.’
