WITNESS
CICD college and Gaia, Birmingham, UK, and Holsted, Denmark
March 2009
By KT from Estonia
Ok..where do I begin..
maybe from the very beginning…
First of all, the promotors there, who search people to participate in this Humana program, they DO NOT tell the people all the things You really need to know. SO when You go there with blue eyes, believing everything, you will fall hard and fast!
My promotor did not even tell me in detail how much money you have to earn and how long the program will take place, he told me twelve months. I took an academic vacation from university to go there. Later found out that it will take 18 months. So I took a year off from university for nothing, to raise money for them, knowing, that I can not go to Africa! This is the first thing. More to come:)
Secondly, let us talk about the program in detail. More details from the GAIA program. So You will work from seven in the morning until five-six in the evening, it depends. They do not even care if you have breakfast or take some water, fruits or something else with you, so you can endure all the long the walking. And the weather? THEY DO NOT CARE. If its raining hard, You will go fundraising. You have to leaflet all day long. You should get like 1000 leaflets out in this time, you walk more than 10 kilometres per day. And when You get less than 1000, like 700-800(thats the number what the people usually get out), you will get shouted at. The woman, Ann-Marie something, was really cruel and mean to us, she really did not care about us, the people, she cared about the money. And the most HUMANA Leaders care about the money. They said all the time : Get more leaflets OUT! You need to earn more money! Dont be so lazy! Organize yourself! thats what they usually said. They did not help us, so we could learn more about something, we learned all by ourselfes. Like SURVIVAL! In one sentence: Money is more important than us, the poeple, who are there to help and wanting to go to Africa. One Example: One person who worked too slowly, was sent home because they realized that she costs more for the program than she is bringing in with this hard fundraising!
Thridly, cash cash cash. So more about the earning system in this crazy HUMANA program. IN GAIA you have to earn 2400 POUNDS in 4 months, with leafletting. It makes 600 POUNDS a month. Sundays we had off, and we drove every month to Hull, where CICD is. Mondays were Study Days, so we could not work. So we worked every month like 16 days. And we must leaflet for getting clothes. Every bag we collected was 1 Pound for us. SO 2400 bags full of clothes we had to collect, which is a lot. 40 bags every day! But everyone collected like 15 in average per day. So in average everyone collects like 1400 POUNDS In this 4 months. BUT YOU MISS 1000 POUNDS!!! Well You go then to a school, in Denmark. DRH Holsted. There You have to fundraise by selling magazines or roses 4000 POUNDS in SIX WEEKS!!! Every month one week fundraising. Its even harder to get and you really have to work like a horse. You will sent out from the school to a city, whatever you choose. And then a survival week will begin. Where to get food? where can I sleep? In a public toilet! yes, indeed. We slept in a public toilet for two nights. So human rights? No trace!!
So this was really enough for me, so I asked my dad for money and flew HOME.
Fourth Chapter How much are they earning from 20 people?
So, I will write down here, how much estonian kroons they are making in average in 4 months when someone participates in the GAIA program?
We get for each 20 kroons(10 Danish kroons). But how much will they get?
Normally there are like 10 things in each bag. In Humana shops in Estonia they will get for one shirt, pants, shorts, shoes like 80 kroons(40 Danish kroons). So one bag is worth 750 kroons (375 Danish kroons). So every one collects in average 1500 bags full of clothes, like I told before. So 1500 bags are worth 1 125 000 kroons (550 000 Danish kroons) And this amount 20 times, so we get 22 500 000 kroons (11 250 000 Danish kroons). This is the amount only for 20 people, but they have hundred of volunteers. And this is the numbers for clothes what come to Estonia. And their expenses are really minimal, because in the storage, there also working a lot of volunteers, who put the clothes ready for transportation. So they pay only for transportation and holding their shops open. So this is only for Estonia, but i think in Germany, clothes are even more expensive. And in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland? They are sending them everywhere. A little percentage goes to africa. And they do not give there clothes out for free. The Africans must also buy them. This clothes, was volunteers are collecting to help poor people in Africa. This is desperating. Makes me sad and full of anger.
PS! This is only a calculation. Written proof I do not have. But if people think about it, You will see, it is really true.
One thing. Something about Africa. Other people stories
No normal conditions. No needed medicine. No material for building and helping. You are there on your own with some people, you barely know. You have to organize all by yourself. Go to the town chief, ask for help. You will get minimal amount of money to survive there. And what you learn in those DRH schools or whatever, this is not needed there. They just want you to learn something, because they can not sent you there, that you do not know nothing about this country, where are you going. You will learn by yourself and you do not get any help from the teachers. They are acting really strange, when you ask specific questions about the money, where it is going and so on. They just say: Helping others. Go learn. Dont bother me! And they get angry really fast. So it is really really hard there to endure. And you really do not get a lot of sleep. Im not going in this detaily, because it will become a real big story.
When You do not collect the money? You can stay there for 3 months more, in the school, and collect the money. Or you will be sent home, they will buy you a plain ticket and all the money, you have been collecting, goes into the pockets of the tvind cult leaders. When to think about it, they making a lot of profit, a lot! In the Birmingham house, CICD, people are living with minimal needs fulfilled, you have to do anything yourself. You have to work, learn, plan, work, collect, work!!! sleep? NO WAY!
ONE POSITIVE THING!!!
The people that you meet, who are also volunteers, are really GREAT. I saw, that all the people there were really friendly, they had no big fights, everyone got along with each other. We held together. And this makes me also sad, to know, that there kind of people, who are trying to make the world a better place, are trying to help, are used by this profit-making company. This makes me mad also.
Is this normal if someones dad dies, and you have to work the next day? NO IT ISNT!
Is it normal, if your kinda slow, but you wanting to help others, you will be sent home, because You dont make enough profit for the company? NO!
At leat I have to say, Humana uses kind people to make money. It is easy money for them, but hard work for us, the volunteers, who are believing in good! It lefts you with a empty heart and full of emotions, which make you sad.
Ok, this is all for now!
If You want to know more, just ask. I wanting to help you. And keep fighting against this company. I will help you with anything!
Regards,
KT, Estonia
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Posted: 4th March 2009
