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I never saw such a large-scale swindle
Dutch TV-1 'Netwerk' programme on Humana in Holland
On Wednesday, 26th June 2002, Dutch TV-1s Netwerk programme broadcasted a 22 minute report on the rise of Tvind as a cult and the role of its clothes collector Humana in Holland, as one example of how Humana makes European charity money go round and end up in the Teachers Group. (Only the previous day a separate report made it clear that in Holland collectors of used textiles, such as Humana, seem to collect much more than they make public.)
The broadcast included important new material:
* Internal Tvind documents that show how Tvind planned secret money transfers from Humana Holland to Angola and back to Denmark, as a means of 'circulating' money intended for the poor in Africa back to the Teachers Group.
* An interview with ex-Teachers Group member Britta Junge, who worked for Tvind in Angola for 15 years, confirming the money transfer described in the documents.
* An interview with P. Hoebink, an expert in development from the University of Nijmegen, who says Humana in Holland should be investigated and closed down.
Detailed summary of Netwerk programme:
Dutch development investigator bewildered by the way Humana makes money go round
HILVERSUM, June 26th 2002
Development researcher P. Hoebink from Nijmegen university has more than serious doubts about the reliability of Humana Holland, so it appears from the broadcasting of Netwerk on Dutch TV. Hes even bewildered after a thorough study of the Tvind-organisation and the role of its clothes recycling company Humana. And Hoebink knows what hes talking about, hes a specialist and for instance was part of a research commission that last year investigated the financial whereabouts of the development organisation Forster Parents.
First of all Netwerk explained what Tvind is, how it was founded by Amdi Petersen and how it could grow using the government benefits to establish its schools and use the money to start commercial enterprises. Most of our people are working for a salary, Amdi explains in old black and white part of a documentary film on Danish television, shown by Netwerk. We pay taxes on their salaries. The rest is being put in a big bowl. From this we pay our expenses, our rent and food and what is left, we save. A bus with ambitious, rebellious youngsters is filmed driving around in third world countries, apparently looking for the good that should be done. It was the beginning of Tvind.
But in 1996 Minister of Education Ole Vig Jensen says at a press conference: The schools have become a money machine for Tvind. That year the government benefits for the Tvind-schools were stopped.
Steen Højström, a former member of the Teachers Group, tells what in his opinion could be the purpose of Tvind and its leader Amdi Petersen. Everybody should become a member of the Teachers Group. So in that way there will be no famine. It will be the perfect world.
Historian Jes Fabricius Møller from Copenhagen University adds: Tvind is based on Maostic principles. The revolution should begin in rural, poor areas and then spread to the industrialized world and the cities. About cult-leader Amdi Petersen he says: He can make people feel happy or sad. Its a question of psychological violation. Amdi, according to Fabricius Møller, takes all the important decisions within the global Tvind-empire, which is build on a strong hierarchy. To have children, for instance, is out of the question within the Teachers Group. And when at last Höjström was allowed to have children with his wife, he put in his testament that when his wife and he would die, their children would become a part of the Teachers Group.
Møller also describes Tvind as a multi million dollar, global empire. The Teachers Group, according to Møller, who has made a thorough investigation about Tvind and wrote a book about the cult, the Teachers Group theoratically is very democratic, but in fact has a strong hiarchy with Amdi Petersen taking all the major decisions.
Former member Steen Thomsen describes Amdi
Petersen as a very unpredictable man. He liked to play music with Petersen, but
was also afraid of the cult-leader. Because he could get very angry, just at
once. Then he organised a meeting and picked someone out who had been doing
something wrong, according to him. People got humiliated.
The second part of the broadcast shows how Humana Holland could transfer money to the Teachers Group in Denmark, without having to deduct any money in tax. Its stated in a secret document between two top-members of the Teachers Group, Poul Jörgensen and Niels Holst. The proposal is that Humana Holland transfers 150.000 dollars each month by cheque as a gift to Angola. From Angola the money is transferred as loan to the Teachers Group in Denmark, according to the document. Humana Holland is used as an example for the working method of other European Humana-organisations.
Britta Junge, who worked during 15 years for Humana in Angola, confirms the working method. According to her 75 to 80 percent of the income of clothing collecting in Europe was being used for the cult. This document confirms the practice when I worked in Angola. I never saw that money. Britta Junge got out of the Teachers Group in December 1995. She says that maybe 25 percent of the money that Humana makes from selling clothes in African countries is being used for development projects. All the rest is going to the project leaders, members of the Teachers Group, says Junge. All of them put their money in a big bowl, which means money made out of the clothes collecting in Europe is being used to enrich the cult-like Tvind-organisation.
The directors of Humana Holland, the Dutchman Robbert van Baaren and TG-member Jytte Nielsen, didn't want to react in front of the camera. Netwerk had to call chairman Per Jensen at the Humana multi million headquarter near Harare, in Zimbabwe.
Jensen says that Humana Holland doesn't send money to bankaccounts of the Teachers Group in Denmark. 'Ánd what the project leaders do with their money is not of our business', Jensen says. Further he remarks that the accountants have always given a positive statement on the books of Humana and that Humana has the quality hall-mark of the Central Bureau Fundraising.
Vice-director L. van Deth of the CBF says that because of the new facts her organisation will make an enquiry on what happens with the money Humana is becoming out of the clothes collecting. 'Because if there are doubts about one organisation which we have given our quality hall-mark, one could question the other ones too. And that would raise the question about how we do our job. I would like to show that we do our work good.'
Development researcher P. Hoebink doesn't have much confidence in the investigation. He points out that if Humana really was to better it's life it should have done that a long time ago. 'Or when Amdi Petersen was arrested in Los Angeles. But I still see Danish names as director and members of the board of Humana Holland, who, as I understand, are members of the Teachers Group. Every time it's the same story, with money ending up on dubious places on this earth. I've never seen such a large-scale swindle. That's what I should call it, swindle and deceit. Because Humana claims the money from the clothes collecting is being used for the people in need in Africa. But in fact this is not the case.'
Han Gommeren
Some of the same material is repeated in an article in Eindhovens Dagblad that appeared the following day. Click here to read it.
At the 11th july Netwerk broadcasted a second item on Tvind, in which the Dutch government calls for an European wide investigation on Humana.
Click here to read it.