Why was this archive created?

This archive preserves investigative journalism and public documents about the Tvind organization for research, transparency, and historical documentation. The original TvindAlert.com operated from 2001-2022 and was restored from Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) snapshots in memory of journalist Wade Larsen.

DRH Holsted

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This content is from the original TvindAlert.com (2001-2022), preserved for historical and research purposes. Some images or documents may be unavailable.

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DRH Holsted DENMARK

There is also a small school, "Byens Lys" or "City Lights", at Holsted

Readers comments:

A DRH Holsted story 2002

"Everything I've read in Tvind Alert pages fits in my picture of this organisation. There are lots of things you tell about which happen here every day. The isolation. The tasks. The fundraising. ... I decided to quit. I have options in my life, I speak several languages and will restart my studies next year anyway. But most of these people don't really have options.......I just feel cheated and really disappointed to the fact that after all, it's all about getting MONEY."

Leslie writes:

I have recently spent 3 months as an unpaid volunteer at DRH Holsted. I have some comments to make about Humana and about your website.

Firstly, I should point out that I was asked to leave after drinking alcohol. This was fair enough as I knew the rules, but I left on relatively amicable terms. However, this followed suspiciously closely on the discovery by Humana that, even though I was unpaid, they would have to pay tax on my food and lodging which the tax authorities regarded as payment-in-kind.Two Ghanaians were also staying at the school as lodgers. One had been there for over a year and paid cash without a rent book. The other stayed for nothing in return for 3 hours work each day. No doubt DRH Holsted has now rectified its position on these matters with the tax authorities and the Danish social security system. To the best of my knowledge neither of these people was registered with the local commune as required by Danish law-doubtless an oversight.For the sake of Humana's reputation someone should check.

Here are some comments:

Solidary Humanism: this "theory" is complete garbage. If you wish to embarass someone in Humana just ask them to explain it. At best their eyes will glaze over and you will be told to "find out". At worst you will be regarded as potentially disloyal for even asking.For what it is worth, the theory seems to derive from the radical educationalists of the late 1960s such as Ivan Illich.He believed that any social organisation created a barrier between the human beings involved and robbed both parties of their humanity- thus, he seemed to suggest at one time that hospitals were "inhuman"and ,instead,sick and injured people should be looked after "spontaneously" by human beings in the immediate vicinity. Whatever the merits of this idea, it fits awkwardly with the close collaboration of Humana and Southern African countries with dodgy records on human rights. However, it would fit in with the era and milieu in which Tvind was born.

Tvindalert horror stories: I realise that you cannot check the information but some of these stories are dripping with neurosis. In particular, I wish to correct an exaggeration in Stella's story. The Estonian girl,Riina, was at Hosted at the same time as me having completed 6 months in Botswana. The "starvation" was simply the result of a cock -up by Hosted who sent the money on a Friday after the banks had closed.Riina has not been put off by this and is intending to go to the DNS. The allegations of illegality I cannot comment on except to say that at my induction weekend "John" made it quite clear that he had no objections as long as the money was going to Africa rather than to the Danish government.

Open recruitment: This policy has great merit if you think of it as giving anybody the chance to prove themselves.On the other hand, some people are clearly not suitable from the beginning and taking their money may be seen as robbery.This open policy means there will inevitably be a high drop-out rate.As for refunds,this would seem to be financially impossible for any organisation from the point of view of cash flow.Try getting your money back if you don't like the film in the cinema.

Training: Of course, students are entitled to some value for their money and at Holsted there is clearly a problem . The computers are old(some ex-post office) and the data base is a jumbled ragbag.After 6 months training people are sent to Portuguese speaking countries without a word of the language-there are no tapes, no text books and no tape players. Even some of the "tasks" on the computer cannot be completed as they refer to non-existent Hugo textbooks.Almost an entire month was spent practising a play for the summer theatre-a pleasant idea but irrelevant to development work in Africa.

Dangerous revolutionaries?: we are not talking here about the Baader Meinhof group. People in Humana display all the signs of the petty-bougeois radical. Their attitude is:"aren't we naughty to annoy everybody like this." There is no long term strategy and huge amounts of time and money are invested in a series of one-off "wizard japes":a giant windmill, then cattle ranching in Queensland, next a huge yacht and so on. There is nothing to connect them all together. An indication that they are not dangerous revolutionaries is their obsession with feeding soya to the poor of Africa rather than confronting the social and economic structures which stop the poor having access to meat. In my opinion this effectively subsidises the exploitation of Africa. Much of their literature is smug and arrogant-they continue to produce booklets written in bad English even when they know what an amateur impression this makes .Some "sentences" don't even have verbs.

Where does the money go? It's simple- they waste it with enormous inefficiency. Humana-Tvind accumulate large amounts of money by employing top class professionals like lawyers and accountants.They then spend it in a manner which would horrify any business management professional.

Small-Group Psychology: this is the key to understanding Humana and it does not make them a cult-but it does explain why so many of them cannot express themselves spontaneously. At Hosted, poor Tina could not answer questions on Humana without staring into space and trying to remember the correct answer as if it were an exam. There is little spontaneous laughter.

My advice?: surprisingly I think people should give it a go but remember not to admit having any money-you will get a "scholarship"as Humana is desperate for people What you pay on a monthly basis is no greater than commercial gap-year organisations. You will have to be self reliant in everything including "training" But, as they say in Humana, "it's good experience for Africa!"

I left 2 books at Holsted which would have been of interest to you. The first was their recruitment manual which could have come from any high-powered telesales organisation and included great emphasis on "overcoming" problems like money or girl/boyfriends. There was a large section on "combatting lies and slander".

The second book was, unusually, a well-bound hardback. It was a manual for a trip from Denmark to India and back again for the millenium. It contained a mixture of tasks to be completed at different destinations en- route and a collection of background articles and book extracts. As a learning guide for the journey I was impressed by it. However, I recall it most memorably for the re-printed article by Osama bin Laden. This was, of course, prior to 9/11.

One task in India involved sleeping on the streets.

The woman in charge at Holsted is Anne-Marie Masden. She is Danish (of course )and in her mid-40's. She has been in the movement since her early twenties.

During one conversation she told me that her son, who is now in his early twenties, was working for Tvind in China - in Shanghai, I think. It appears that much of their computer work is done over there to take advantage of the cheap labour (and,one assumes, to get away from prying eyes). They are in it for the long haul as her son has been given two years to learn Chinese.

An internal document I saw (was) the equivalent of a commercial business plan for the forthcoming few years. It projected the goals for recruitment at the different schools and the increase in the number of schools throughout the world. The real recruitment for Holsted was less than half the projected figure and there seems no reason to believe that other schools did any better.

The projection for the spread of Tvind schools across the world was equally without a basis in reality. The yearly tabulation ended thus: 2010: MARS.

Of course, it is easy to see this as another example of the smug and self-congratulatory attitude of the T.G. - just another in-joke. On the other hand, they openly tell people that their Zimbabwe H.Q. can be seen from space!

Here are two other points which I recall ;firstly, the library at Holsted contained "A History of the Iraqi Baathist Party" and a collection of speeches by Saddam Hussein(both published in Baghdad) and another collection of his speeches published in London by Longman.

Other books include books of photos from the Republic of North Korea (published in Pyongyang), books by and about the PLO and volumes on armed peasant struggle in India.

Secondly, Humana has an unorthodox method of recruitment: they offer a bounty of 1000 kroner for each person you can get to join. I think I still have the e-mail somewhere.

The students are well aware of their financial importance to the school (or the "economy" as it is known in Tvindspeak). They know that they are unlikely to be sent away whatever they do. One result of this is frequent theft from DRH volunteers - who are not allowed keys to their single rooms. Almost everyone who stays at DRH Holsted for a while ends up having money or property stolen. There is no sympathy or recompense from "the management" who simply say that the volunteers were silly to have such items in their unlocked rooms.

Byens Lys has a working relationship with a Tvind school at Vamdrup situated some 30Km. away. By the way, this school has a widespread cannabis problem). Each day, one student resident at Holsted is driven to Vamdrup and two from Vamdrup are brought back morning and evening - when they can be bothered to get up. I could never work out what good reason there was for this but I suspect it is a method of subsidising the "economy" of Byens Lys since Vamdrup is much larger (Vamdrup is an efterskole and has over 50 students in - theoretically secure - accommodation).

In normal Tvind fashion the head of each school sits on the board of the other school just to keep things in the family.

Humana is helping its volunteers to break the danish labour regulations so they can earn money to give to Humana.

In order to supplement the takings from street sales of the newspaper volunteers are found jobs . These are at rates of pay below the recognized minimum and are paid cash in hand, thereby saving the employer considerable amounts in tax and social security payments. At Holsted such jobs ranged from working in a pizza parlour to trimming Xmas trees.

Although it is legal for EU residents to work in Denmark there are formalities like registration with the local amt(regional council) as well as with the social security and tax system. This does not take place and Humana covers itself by getting the volunteers to sign a "waiver".

If the volunteer does not complete the "training" no money is returned.

Lack of regular maintenance means that in some areas light switches are hanging out of walls and exposing live wires. Also, there is widespread rot in window and door frames .One emergency exit cannot be safely used as the frame is so badly rotted that the large central pane is in danger of falling out.

DRH Holsted ignore animal regulations. In the Summer of 2003 Two Shetland ponies were at DRH Holsted contrary to regulations which forbid such types of animals from being kept within town boundaries. They were kept out of sight in an area far too small for such active creatures. They were rarely visited except for feeding and sometimes this was overlooked. The ponies were released to a larger area only when most of the grass had been worn away leaving bare earth. One of the ponies had a wart-like infection on its face which was not adequately treated.

Leslie

Aug-Sept 2003