The ‘Programme’
by Tvind Alert
If you are considering signing up, read this first.
How Tvind recruits
The Teachers Group recruits on the Internet, in newspapers and magazines, on notice boards. You are invited to an ‘info meeting’ at a hotel or a ‘college’.
This is the kind of wording they use:
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Info meeting in London Saturday the 18 th of July at 12:00 - 16.00 Address: YHA London St Paul’s 36 Carter Lane, London, EC4V 5AB Take part in creating development – and develop yourself!
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The meeting will typically last for four hours. At the end you will be urged to sign up:
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Here is the program for the 4 hour meeting
…………. After the info meeting you can find time on Saturday or Sunday for a one to one meeting, at this meeting we can together find solutions for practical, economical issues and it is possible to enrol in a program. |
What you have to pay
Enrolment Fee – £450.
You pay: travel to and from your ‘college’
You pay: your private expenses (‘pocket money’)
You pay: vaccinations
After that you pay for ‘the programme’ – your
college course (food, accommodation and ‘programme cost’),
a fee of several hundred dollars, payable in advance.
If you cannot pay directly, you are invited to ‘pay’
in one of two ways: either by working for a set period
for the organisation, or by ‘fundraising’, or both.
Option 1: Working your way through ‘college’
The Teachers Group runs many money-making schemes, and uses students as free labour. You will typically be required to work for one of these either for a set time, or until they say you have earned enough to qualify for travel abroad. You will live in a Tvind facility.
These schemes are usually:
Old clothes collection
Leafletting, making door-to-door collections, emptying
clothes bins, sorting and packing for one of the Teachers
Group ‘recycling charities’. This is typically very hard work
with no pay, and many complaints of long hours, being set
impossible targets, and squalid living conditions.
These schemes are presented as charities. However there
is evidence the clothes are sold through nominee companies
for a healthy profit for the Teachers Group. You are
providing free labour.
‘Social work‘
Working without pay to ‘look after’ difficult teenagers
at one of the Teachers Group’s special schools for
‘emotionally disadvantaged’ children (mostly in Denmark).
You will have no qualifications or training.
Tvind is actually paid huge sums by Danish local
authorities to ‘take care’ of these children. These schemes
are presented as ‘social work’ and charitable. There is evidence
that little of the profits are ploughed back. You are providing
free labour
Hotel work
At the One World College (DRH Norway) in Lillehammer,
Norway, students often have to work unpaid as part
of their course in the ski-hotel next door, which is a commercial business owned by the Teachers Group
‘Fundraising’
In addition to other payments, just about all students have to ‘fundraise’. This means going out for weeks onto the streets begging for money. You work in a team, selling leaflets or just asking for donations. This is one of the most hated parts of ‘the programme’.
You have no choice about how long you fundraise for, and you are given a weekly financial target. This target is almost impossible to achieve. You get a tiny daily allowance (inadequate for travel, food or accomodation) and each team is told to look after themselves. You may well end up hitch-hiking, sleeping in church halls and begging for food.
When challenged, Tvind leaders assert that this is a character building and team bonding experience.
If you fail to meet your target, you cannot continue with ‘the programme’. Those who fail or refuse are routinely excluded, usually without any refunds. At this point, many give up and go home, forfeiting the enrolment fee.
The college – teaching
If you have stuck it so far, you may now be enjoying your ‘college course’ as a trainee ‘development instructor’ (DI). This may not be the experience you were led to expect.
The Teachers Group runs at least 17 so-called DRH or Travelling High Schools around the world. All these ‘colleges’ are run and staffed by Teachers Group members, who did the same training themselves. They have no other qualifications.
You may find the course material is, in your view, elementary, poorly conceived and inappropriate to modern notions of development work. (The Teachers Group uses a computer-based educational programme of its own devising called ‘MmM’). Promised language teaching (eg Portuguese) may be absent or inadequate.
The facilities
Colleges vary, but reports consistently point to very poor facilities (often with outdated equipment, old computers and broken down furniture).
There is no budget for maintenance and no staff. You will spend much of your time on routine maintainenance and repairs of college buildings. You may have to paint walls. You may be told to flush the sewage system. You will spend much time cooking and clearing up.
The colleges are presented as cash-strapped. There appears to be little investment. Perhaps this is because – as the evidence suggests – the colleges hand over a lot of money to the property companies hidden in low tax administrations that own them.
Routine and expectations
There will be plenty of activities, such as singing revolutionary songs, presentations and group meetings. If you like that sort of thing.
You will make friends inside the college but not outside. You will probably be discouraged from associating much with folk beyond the college walls. You will have to undertake not to drink alcohol (or take drugs).
You will have very little spare time and no time to yourself. Every moment will be occupied.
There will be lots of meetings. You may find these meetings are not as democratically-run as you expected. If you disagree with any aspect of ‘the programme’ or challenge the way the course is run, you may find yourself treated as hostile. You could be told to change your ‘attitude’. You may be made to feel guilty, inadequate, or that you have let the side down.
If you are a rebel, are overtly religious, or ask too many questions, you may find yourself summarily excluded and sent home – without compensation.
In Africa….
(or India, Central America or China)
You have arrived in a strange country, perhaps in the middle of the night. You expect to be met and taken to your project. It has been arranged – but there is nobody there.
You wait for hours, in a bus station or street. Eventually, you get a call telling you to take a certain bus – or to hitch-hike. You make your own way. (We have been told of this scenario by many informants).
Nobody apologises.
The project abroad
You reach your ‘project’ and settle in. But there may be nothing for you to do. Is there a plan or any organisation? Where is all the money you fundraised? Perhaps you become aware that there doesn’t seem to be any cash to spend.
You notice that the Danish ‘project leader’ is running around in a four-wheel drive vehicle and lives fairly comfortably in the centre of town. You are in much more basic accomodation at the end of a dirt track.
You may wonder if you have proper health insurance. If you fall ill – with malaria, for example – you may be surprised if you are not taken for medical treatment right away. You might be alarmed to be told it’s not really a problem, or to pull yourself together.
Eventually you may be given something to do. Or perhaps you get tired of waiting and create a little programme for yourself. It’s curious that whatever you do seems to involve spending very little money. You are working for free. But you know big organisations like UN agencies are paying huge sums of money to support the programmes you’re working on. Odd, you think.
But you make a bunch of friends, meet loads of local people, share time with families, experience life in a foreign country, travel around, live life to the full and, generally, have a great time.
So that’s all right then. But was it really the development work you expected?
Afterwards
The Teachers Group asks you to return to your college for a ‘third period’. If you have come this far, you know the ropes.
You may be expected to help teach the next volunteers. You may be asked to join the ‘promotions’ team, to recruit future students. It is very likely you will be asked to write begging letters to charities, institutions, embassies and businesses, asking for grants, funding, and donations.
You will have spent one to two years of your life, waved goodbye to a lot of money, but have no recognised qualification that is of use anywhere in the world.
If you have been loyal and appear to be the right material, you could be invited to join the Teachers Group and become a full time college Teacher.
Disclaimer: we know there are lots of selfless, caring and smart individuals who have volunteered with Tvind, got something out of it and felt they did a great job.This summary is based on accounts sent to us by many, many others who were disappointed by their experience, and tells another side to the story. We think it should be read together with information about the financial background of to Tvind and ongoing allegations of fraud – and serve as a warning to others. |
Further reading
Witness: Accounts by volunteers 1970-2009
Our collection of stories sent in to Tvind Alert
Did this match your experience of Humana? Do you have a comment? Or a story of your own? Tell us
Last updated: 13th August 2009
