An investigative website into the Humana People-to-People organisation and the international Tvind movement ... in Denmark

Schools for scandal

Tvind Alert contacts:   Christoffer Holmsteen <tvindalert@aol.com>
Britta Rasmussen <britta.rasmussen.aarslev@get2net.dk>

Tvind assets:   Many schools and colleges, much land and property; businesses, trust funds, a zoo, a riding centre, possibly a clinic.   Ships.    Headquarters buildings at Ulfborg and Grindsted and elsewhere

Denmark is Tvind's homeland, where it all began and where most of its European schools and colleges are situated  -  until recently handsomely subsidised by the Danish state.    But not any more.   In 1996 the Danish parliament tried to change the constitution to prevent state funding of the Tvind schools.

Click here for more on the constitutional crisis created by Tvind.

Although that law ran into constitutional difficulties, most Tvind schools no longer receive state support,  and many have gone bankrupt.   Attempts to start up new Tvind schools instead have foundered because they cannot prove they are independent.  So not everything is going Tvind's way.

Mogens Amdi Petersen has recently moved his headquarters from Europe to Zimbabwe  -  perhaps to put himself beyond the reach of Danish law.

Click here to read Tvind Alert's page on Mogens Amdi Petersen, Tvind's Danish founder

Tvind is the name of a farm near Ulfborg, western Denmark, where the Tvind movement began.  There are now four schools at Tvind, together with the tall windmill which was built in the 1970s to generate electricity.

The Necessary Teacher Training College

Tvind's alternative teacher education college, founded at Ulfborg in appx 1971.   Also known as Det Nødvendige Seminarium.or DNS.   More (under construction)

The Travelling Folk High School

This is the original Tvind on-the-road academy, training Tvind school-leavers and solidarity workers.   The model has been copied elsewhere in Denmark, in Norway, in England and the United States.      Also known as Den Rejsende Folkehøjskole, Tvind or DRH Tvind.  More  (under construction)

This school was officially declared bankrupt in February 1999:

Tvind students called home  Ten students from the Tvind Travelling High School have been called home from abroad after the school has been declared bankrupt.   [Copenhagen Calling 14th February 1999]

List of other Tvind schools

(under construction)

Tvind has run 30-40 Tvind schools and colleges in Denmark.    Most if not all are boarding schools.   Some are friskole  -  free schools   -   others efterskole,  or  højskole.  They may be for local children sent by their parents.  Others are special schools  -   småskole   -    for children with emotional or psychiatric problems, or special needs, with fees often paid by the state or local authority

Many take children from other countries   -    Tvind advertises its schools especially heavily in German on the Internet.   Most schools rely on volunteer teachers, often recruited through newspaper ads and the Internet from other countries.

In 1998 the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten reported a planned new Tvind phase of expansion, with 10 new schools and another nine in the pipeline.   But this has not occurred

Everybody in Denmark seems to know somebody or have a family member who has been a pupil or volunteer teacher at a Tvind school.   Involvement with Tvind on this level has often split families.     It has become part of the culture, but none the less controversial.

   
Links    including CNN & BBC Education

http://www.skydebanegaard.dk/omnatvid/hvemer/klasser.htm
Tvind page of links to many Tvind schools in Denmark

Proposal for new Tvind school rejected from the Copenhagen Post, 1999    By Cathy Conlon

Tvind financial foundations:

Central Tvind money tank, enriched by the contributions of members of the Teachers Group and possibly by other sources of income.   Members of the Teachers Group do not normally know what the money has been used for.    This is a private trust.    In 1993 the Danish Auditor-General estimated Tvind's assets in Faelleseje, the other trusts and property in Denmark at £30m.   Much of the money passing through Faelleseje and Estate has reportedly been used to buy fruit plantations and property abroad; this was not included in the estimate.

Also a Tvind money tank, a private foundation based in Denmark

Thomas Brocklebank

Tvind money tank based in Denmark

Humanitarian Fund

Private foundation, said by Tvind to support emergency aid projects abroad.

Tvind companies

Some companies believed to be owned by Tvind:

       E4
       Isterødgaard  aps
       Løvdahl

Other Tvind assets:

Tvind had/has a mini-zoo, at Christianshede close to Silkeborg in Jutland.    More

There is believed to be a clinic or hospital reserved for members of the Teachers group.

 Peterslyst Riding Centre, recently reopened.

Joergensen prosecuted

In 1996 Poul Jørgensen, a former spokesman for the organisation, was found guilty of knowingly withholding key information from the company's accounts, and in June was refused leave to appeal   [Copenhagen Post, Dec 1998]

På sejrens vej historien om skolesamvirket Tvind og dets skaber Mogens Amdi Petersen   (On the road to victory - the story of the School Co-operation Tvind and its creator Mogens Amdi Petersen)  by Jes Fabricius Møller  (Forlaget DIKE, 256pp)  (in Danish)

"Tvind set indefra"  (Tvind from the Inside)  by Britta Rasmussen. (in Danish)  (Tommeliden, Måre Byvej 30, 5853 Ørbæk, Denmark Tel 0045 65 98 23 74,  Fax 65 98 25 74)

Flere Visne blomster - en kritisk antologi om Tvind   (More Dying Flowers -   A Critical Anthology About Tvind')   by 21 former Tvind teachers (1980, 285pp)  (in Norwegian)

Danida is the Danish government foreign aid agency:

'The recent clutch of negative publicity has led to the government aid organisation Danida pulling its support, claiming that the organisation is "secretive and undemocratic.".'               [Copenhagen Post, Dec 1998]

UFF shops, clothes boxes, sorting centre, offices

DENMARK
U-landshjælp fra Folk til Folk i Danmark - Humana People to People
Energivej 2, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark
Tel: +45 44 66 40 16
Fax: +45 44 66 40 36
uffdkch@web4you.dk
www.uff.dk

http://www.uff.dk/
UFF Denmark