Tvind Alert

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Africa - the Front Line

Under one name or another, Tvind is all over the former 'Front Line' states of southern Africa    -   Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, not to mention Guinea Bissau and South Africa itself.   This is where its European development aid is supposed to end up.

In its early days Tvind packed its bags and went to Africa because the Front Line states represented the struggle of the left against apartheid, capitalism and imperialism....

It grew close to liberation movements and freedom fighters (many now in government) in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Guinea Bissau.  (ZANU, Frelimo, the MPLA, SWAPO and the ANC)    It remains highly favoured by, for example, President Mugabe in Zimbabwe.   Today it is also active in the former Republic of South Africa itself.

DAPP  -  Tvind's 'aid agency'

The 'aid agency',  supposed to deliver European aid from Humana and UFF to the poor in southern Africa, is locally known as DAPP, Development Aid from People to People.   (ADPP   -  Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo   -  in the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique).

It's a complicated picture because Humana and UFF also keep up a presence in these countries.   It's impossible to be really sure who's supposed to be running what or where the money's going.

DAPP and ADPP run 'development aid projects', schools, various institutes and companies.  There may also be clinics.    Most of the senior DAPP staff are Danish, and DAPP projects use solidarity workers recruited by Tvind in Europe.

MORE INFORMATION ON DAPP PROJECTS REQUIRED !!

Tvind's 'Projects'

The Front Line states are littered with DAPP, ADPP and UFF 'projects'.   They supposedly include:

Tree planting
Agricultural schemes
'Childrens towns'
Aids and HIV programmes
Schools and colleges
Emergency aid
Family programmes

The projects sound fine  -  until you start to turn over a few stones.  Dozens of solidarity workers have come back complaining of schools with no pencils, a dismal lack of organisation, ideological bullying and mistreatment of volunteers.

Then there's the question of where the money comes from.   Tvind says the 'projects' are paid for by second hand clothes and donations in Europe and the US, and money raised by solidarity workers.   But a lot of the projects also receive grants from other sources, such as  -  African governments, local councils, embassies and High Commissions, the EU, grant-making trusts and other charities.  It's known as 'double funding'.

In that case, where does the money raised in Europe go?

In 1994 investigators from the British Charity Commission flew to Zambia to investigate DAPP projects there.  They concluded there was substantial 'double funding'.    Humana UK subsequently lost its charitable status, was renamed and is no longer part of the Tvind empire.

Tvind owns plantations...

Tvind actually owns and farms large chunks of Africa.  In some countries, it was given land and property by grateful governments after independence.

In Zimbabwe, for example, Tvind owns several large estates where it grows eucalyptus, maize, and all kinds of other crops.    The local people who live and work on these estates effectively work for Tvind.    Curiously, all these estates are in the country's mnost fertile and prosperous region, where aid is least needed.

Tvind calls these 'development projects, but to anyone else they look very much like commercial plantations, owned and managed by white Europeans.   Not for nothing has Tvind sometimes been accused of being 'the New Colonialists'

...and commercial companies

Tvind's African adventure extends to all sorts of local companies making, selling and exporting goods.  There are going concerns  making poles out of eucalyptus trees, companies selling food and produce, fertiliser and agricultural equipment.  Who knows, some of the courgettes on your local supermarket shelf could have been grown on a Tvind plantation.

It's all money!   But the profits don't seem to make the projects self-supporting.

Tvind Alert is compiling a complete directory of all Tvind agricultural 'projects' and commercial plantations in Africa, Central America, India and the Caribbean for future reference.
INFORMATION ON TVIND PROJECTS REQUIRED!!

Tvind runs schools and colleges

Education for Africans, with primary and secondary schools, special schools for street children, and vocational colleges. A worthy endeavour....but did you know that Tvind charges large sums for local people to send their children to these schools and colleges?  Or that many of the places are subsidised by other organisations?

In 1998, all but three of the places in a DAPP school for street children in Zimbabwe were vacant.   Local DAPP managers said this was because Harare Town Council was refusing to meet the costs.

The Frontline Institute

A grandiose, gleaming white structure  in the middle of a Zimbabwe eucalyptus forest, with clipped lawns and wide steps.   No expense has been spared here to create a European-style 'institute' where Africans from all over southern Africa can learn management and agricultural techniques, as well as 'the Tvind way'.

Humana People-to-People HQ, Shamva

Another massive structure to the glory of Mogens Amdi Petersen in the middle of the African bush.

Apparently feeling under pressure in Europe, Humana People-to-People has moved its world headquarters from Europe to a specially-constructed new building in Zimbabwe.    Mogens Amdi Petersen boasted the new HQ would be so big 'you will be able to see it from the moon.'