Szef zamiesku (English)

 

 

Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland, 07.03.2002

by Magdaleny Grzebałkowskiej   m.grzebalkowska@wp.pl

I feel an idiot.    Fifty pairs of eyes look at me.    I look at a card with text on it.    Rene, tall and lean, with a guitar, gives a signal to my group of three. He begins playing the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine".   We sing a song which we had arranged 5 minutes before.     It tells of the African AIDS calamity and how we, brave volunteers of Humana People to People, will fight it.    -    We will go and knock on the door! - I sing out of tune along with Carrie from Britain and Rodrigo from Brazil.   The audience in the room applauds us.  The next group goes to the centre of the room.  Araya from Austria sits down on a chair and imitates using a latrine.  So there can be no doubt, she holds up a card inscribed "latrine" above her head.   Paul from Scotland explains that in Africa, we will build latrines because this prevents the spread of malaria.

The mood is sublime; such humanitarian reaching-out.  All in all, we have come here from all around the world to a little village deep inside Denmark, to become volunteers.

And only I looked round suspiciously.  Probably during the next two days we would be recruited to a sect called TVIND.  Even Adam and Ewa recruit.  The letter to the editor was short:   "The TVIND organisation, under the cover of aid to Africa, exploits its volunteers to earn huge sums of money. They have to become street beggars. The organisation controls minds. The governments of France and Belgium officially recognise it as a sect.  Every week it advertizes for recruits in your newspaper, in the TV series "Adam and Ewa" it encourages young people to travel"

I met the author of this letter.  Tomek spent 5 months in Denmark before he got to know where he was.  He left there in December.  He gives me a floppy disk with his diary, documents he was able to take and the internet address of Tvindalert, an organisation fighting against Tvind (www.tvindalert.org.uk)

Tvind uses many names. Two of the most well-known are Humana People to People and UFF. The organisation's activities seem simple and at the beginning nobody is suspicious.   During so-called "infoweekends" volunteers from all over the world are recruited.  Those who make the decision to sign a contract with TVIND go for 6 months to Denmark, Norway, England, South Africa or the USA, where they have training schools.  Candidates are told that during the 6 months they will learn to be volunteers.  During this training period, 2 weeks of every month they will have to earn money (this is called fundraising).  After half a year, they go to Africa, Asia or South America, paying all the costs of their journeys.

"The training in these schools is fictitious"", says Tomek, who knows from his own experience and the Tvindalert website.  "The only important thing is to make money.  Anyway, the money made by the volunteers is only a small part of  TVIND income, which is  millions of dollars - they make money by the sale of used clothing, they get grants from the governments of various states."

After two hours of conversation I make up my mind to go to Denmark on an "infoweekend". I send an email to the address given in their advertisement, and I check whether anyone in Poland can confirm Tomek's revelations.

 

The Dominicans have heard something, the Department of Public Order something more.

The Warsaw Volunteers Centre has a collection of information on humanitarian organisations from all over the world.

" Humana People to People? We have them on our list "- I learn on the phone- "They give help to Africa in the areas of AIDS and famine control.."   "And do you know anything about it being a sect?" "This is the first time I've heard that....I'd like to say that we only have the addresses of organizations,  we don't check whether and how they act."

At the Dominicans' Centre of Information on Sects in Cracow they also do not know about Tvind or Humana People to People.  But a man once contacted the Dominican friars in Warsaw with some information on them.  " I spoke to him by phone", says Centre worker Krzysztof Jarecki, "He told me he was in Africa, that he was hungry there, working very hard and under mind control - but he did not phone again."

I ask the Department of Public Order at the Home Office what they know about Humana People to People. I get the answer: "  The National Assembly of the French Republic, in its 1995 report into sects (the Guyard Report), characterized Humana France/ Tvind as a sect. Also, in 1997, the Belgian House of Representatives reported that this is an international sect originating in Denmark with a branch in Belgium."

I sit down in front of the TV and watch part of the series "Adam and Ewa" on Polsat (the biggest private TV channel in Poland). Two young people explain to someone that they are going to Africa to help people. But first they will take part in six months training in Denmark. The names "Humana People to People" and "Tvind" are not mentioned. But there is no other organisation in the world which teaches volunteers in schools in Denmark.

I call Marek Krajec, the script-writer of the series, and ask why he decided to send his heroes to Africa with Humana.

"It was a coincidence", he explains, "My daughter found Humana's internet site; she wanted to go, but because it was necessary to spend half a year in Denmark she gave up the idea. And I used it in my script. That's all."

 

 You must get money.

I receive my first mail from Tvind. I am to find the Humana People to People website (www.humana.org) and fill in their form. I write that I am an unemployed graduate of Gdansk University who likes working with children and dreams of a trip to Africa. The newspaper advertisement mentioned the possibility of being a volunteer in China. I add that the Far East also attracts me.

The next letter comes the next day. It is written in Polish.  "(.....), I ask you to write to me about your financial position, i.e. how much you are able to lay out on this programme.  Unfortunately it is not cheap, but it is not too expensive either. Write telling me what you think. You will need at least $1000 to begin the course.  You know, there are different ways of raising this money. Generally, what you want to do is something unbelievable, something wonderful, and I believe if you really want it, it will be possible for you to organise this money.  Get sponsorship through  concerts and events, you can ask different kinds of firms for grants, family, friends, an opportunity to display your own talent is and will be possible. Greetings, Maciek."

I worry a little.  During our meeting, Tomek had told me that in cases where people had no possibility of raising the money for their course, Humana provided an oppportunity to make money through its so-called "netup" scheme.  As a rule, volunteers are sent to Sweden to sort used clothing in enterprises belonging to TVIND.  They also work in "secondhand" shops or buildings or gardening. Why does Maciek write nothing about netup? Maybe he assumes I'm a journalist?

Tomek calms me - people from outside the European Union are working illegally because Humana People to People did not organize work permits. They were threatened by the Swedish police, and they will not propose netup to you yet.

To be sure, I ask Maciek about the possibility of getting work before the course.   He answers, " I'm sorry, you must organise the money yourself, and it is not cheap with respect to China, because it is $2500 + your flight to China + your pocket-money, and there is no possibility of offering you a scholarship because they simply don't exist - You must get money."

Maciek considers." I'm so sorry that money is a problem to you in realising your dreams.   About sponsorship, I know, that depends on determination -l  ook at what Owsiak does...(at the beginning of every year, Jurek Owsiak collects large sums of money for hospitals, sick children etc).   Write and tell me exactly how much you are in a position to organise.    Fight!"  At last I send a letter saying that I will borrow the money from my relatives and that I intend to go on the infoweekend. My correspondent is pleased with me: "That's great! That's the right attitude!"

Tomek does not have any illusions.   "Maciek is one of the people responsible for first contact with willing so-called "instructors". He's glad you are going because he will get $50 - the rate for recruiting one person. If you sign a contract in Denmark, he will get $125."

I already know the date of the infoweekend.    On !st February at 14.00 (2pm) I am to stand in the Central Station, Copenhagen, near McDonalds.   Somebody from Tvind will pick me - and others -  up from there.   I need to have a sleeping-bag, good humour and 1,900 crowns - 200 to pay for the weekend and 1,700 to pay to the school account if I decide to join. These are Maciek's instructions.

I wait for the day, and look for information about TVIND - from Danish newspapers, the internet and asking questions....

 

The organisation began modestly.

In 1968 a group of five Danes decides to travel around the world.   They get on a bus and go to India. The poverty they see there makes such a big impression that they create the Travelling High School. They want to take young people by bus to India to show them what the "real world" looks like.   They are to learn about life and help the Third World.   The leader of the group is a teacher of about thirty, Mogens Amdi Patersen.   This long-haired, charismatic socialist quickly assembles dozens of followers.   By pooling their money they buy a farm in the village of Tvind (-hence their name-) in Jutland, and an old hotel nearby.   Here they build by themselves their first school buildings.   In 1975, they build an energy-producing windmill. It is TVIND's protest against nuclear energy.

The founder members of the organisation create the Teachers Group. The most reliable members of TVIND are allowed to join this group. Whoever becomes a "Teacher" has to sign a contract for life. They continue recruiting new people into the organisation.

In 1978 there are already 800 people in TVIND.   The organisation has developed - it administers a dozen or so schools for children with special problems in Denmark.  The Government gives these money.   The teachers are members of TVIND and often have none of the required training.   TVIND buys some yachts and prepares a "school under sail" for children from dysfunctional families.   The school is governed by people from the Teachers Group, many with no nautical experience or training. In 1983, one of the yachts sinks during a storm; there are a dozen or so teachers on board, no children.   The fact is concealed from TVIND members.

The organisation creates a programme of help to Africa - Humana People to People; it intends to fight apartheid, it builds a network of used clothing collection sites, sorting plant and secondhand shops.    Part of the clothing and of the money from sales is to be sent to countries in the Third World. However, it is a minute percentage. Most of the things are sold in Western Europe.

In 1979, Amdi Petersen disappears.     From this time on, there are only guesses about him.    It is not even known whether he is alive. The Teachers Group is silent on the subject of Petersen; they will only affirm that they are dissociated  from him and that they control the organisation.

 In October 2001, journalists on the Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" surprise everyone.   They find Amdi Petersen.   He lives like a film-star in a luxurious, $6 million flat at 5302, Fisher Island Drive near Miami.    You can only get to Fisher Island by private ferry and you can move there only with a special identification card.    Fisher Island is acknowledged by millionaires and film-stars as "the best place to live on Earth."    Amdi allows only various women from the elite of the Teachers Group to have contact with him.    He lives with Anne Hansen, his "right hand".    TVIND is still under his control.

13 years with TVIND

I contact Else Wale from Denmark by internet.  In 1974 she was fifty, had a grown-up son and a good job.   She found a newspaper advertisement recruiting for TVIND.   She joined.  She had the good luck to get out after 13 years.   She described her story on the Tvindalert site.   I ask her if I can write about her in "Gazeta Wyborcza".    Else has nothing against this.

"When I began, we were a group of 50. We all had only one aim - to improve the world.    It was soon shown to be just fantasy.    The only important thing for TVIND was control over the people who joined.......I signed a contract that I would dedicate myself to TVIND for the rest of my life.    From this time on, the group made all the decisions in my life - individualism was viewed badly.    I couldn't have anything of my own - money, time, even myself.    At that time, I had nothing against this situation; my aim was to give myself to others.   Amdi ordered all of us to go home and burn photos, diaries, letters -all family souvenirs.    This was part of Tvind policy - you can't have a private life. Today, I very much regret what I did.

We worked very hard, sometimes 20 hours a day.   Sometimes somebody would faint from overwork; then someone would shout at him or her that they weren't trying hard enough. The compensation for me for this suffering was the work with the children with special problems.    For most of my time with TVIND I was  a book-keeper in such boarding schools. When I saw the development of the children I was happy.

Every other week they would go home and we would restore order. We built new schools, sports-halls, pools; I hated it because I don't like physical work. Everything was administered by Amdi. We had to listen to and admire him.  There were times when I suffered.   My mother was ill with Alzheimers; I wanted to go and see her - but I wasn't allowed to.   I will never forget the moment when I stood there with the others, being ridiculed for my request.    When at last I did visit my mother, she was already no longer able to recognise me.

I spent several of the later years as a teacher in a TVIND professional school (?training college? fk) But I started to have enough of being continually scrutinised.    What began as a beautiful democracy ended as totalitarianism.   One day in 1987 I packed my things, took my bike and left."

I ask Else, " Why did you stay so long, if it was so bad?"

She answers, " At the beginning, I thought I was really participating in something wonderful, and nothing else was important.    Later, I had nothing to return to.    The money I had earned  was taken by TVIND. I had absolutely nothing.    In 1987 I got my state old age pension, and this helped me make the decision."

 

The navy blue bus bounces along.  Araya from Vienna sleeps against my shoulder.   On my other side sits Carola from the Tyrol.   The coach is filled to the limits - like sardines in a tin - English, Germans, Swedes and one Spanish woman.   In the back, Marta, a Pole from Cracow, dozes.  We are going from Copenhagen to Juelsmind, a little village on the Jutland peninsula.  The infoweekend will take place there. The Danish scenery flashes past the windows, as flat as cardboard cut-outs.

We arrive in the dark.   We can hear the sea booming threateningly somewhere nearby.   Two solid old buildings - a pre-war TB hospital - are our home for the next three days.   We are in a Travelling Folk High School belonging to TVIND - one of 12 in the world ( 6 situated in Denmark).

We look for our rooms, the doors have name cards on them.   I share a room with Araya who slept on my shoulder , Marta from Poland and Arlette from Switzerland.

The conditions are passable.  We will sleep in old double beds which came originally from some hotel, the door doesn't have a lock, the communal bathroom is down the corridor.  One for dozens of people.   I look in.  Interested - when were the tiles last washed?

We are summoned for our first meeting in the club room.   50 people have come to this infoweekend - this is a lot.   Usually there are about 30.   TVIND instructors are sitting between us - people who have been training for several months.   Their aim is to recruit us by internet, to take care of us and to help out.   (Maciek who I corresponded with is not here - he has gone to the TVIND school in England)   The best and most obedient students are instructors. The rest are sent out to fund-raise - the obligatory getting of money for the school during the course.

Into the centre of the room go the two most important people - Anna and Rene.   Both Danes, of around fifty.     Rene is tall, thin, squints his eyes behind strong glasses and smiles with a grin.   Anna is short, with short-cut blonde hair and leather trousers.    She also smiles. But her eyes stay cool.

Araya leans towards me; * Oh, gee, I don't trust her somehow"

Rene is the Headmaster of Juelsminde, Anna is the Head of the school near Tvind. They have both been in the organisation a long time: he was in the group whch built the windmill in 1975, she went by bus to India in the 60s.

Before supper we learn an African song.   Anna sings something which sounds like - Ti ende pamoci in-tima omo!

She doesn't write it down for us, so everybody hears the words differently

"This old African song is from the borderlands of Mozambique and Zimbabwe", Anna explains. The future volunteers are delighted - they are getting nearer to Africa.

Tomek told me before my trip that the African song was part of every TVIND programme.

"This song doesn't really exist", he explained, "It was invented for infoweekends." People returning from Mozambique and Zimbabwe confirmed this.

"Ti ende pamoci intima omo!",  somebody shrieks in my ear.   It is seven in the morning, Saturday.   I open my eyes.    Anna wakes the school with the African song.   Today's programme is lectures, courses and individual conversations.

The people who have come here are really terrific.   Ready to throw away a comfortable life to become volunteers.   They have no idea of the dark side of TVIND.   Yesterday evening, eating hot apple pie, we confided in each other what we wanted to do when we became volunteers.   Humana offers a great number of programmes.   You can go to Africa and work with children - teach them in schools, organise their free time, set up sports clubs.    You can be a member of the TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) group which goes from house to house explaining what AIDS is and how to avoid it.    You can also live on special African farms where you teach the locals how to work the land or tell African women about the need for hygiene.   The programmes in Latin America are similar. Nothing is known about China.   Only two groups have gone (?left? fk)  there and up to now  have shown no signs of life.

Before the trip I spoke to Tomek : " TVIND does do something good - it sends volunteers to help the Third World"

He explained:- "But before they leave they have to pay up large amounts of money, in reality for nothing, since they even have to cover the cost of the airfare themselves.   This is the most expensive trip to Africa in the history of the world.   There are also difficulties in Africa.   I know from the reports of people who have returned, that they weren't insured, they were in dangerous situations, often hungry and exhausted.    Nobody is in charge, so if they need something  they can't get it......It's better to go to Africa by yourself and donate the money saved on Humana People to People to a hospital.

First lecture.   The history of Africa.    Norwegian Stina, a member of the Teachers Group, smiles unnaturally.    Even when she's talking about the appalling fate of starving children.    She explains to us, just like to pre-school children, why Africa is a poor continent.

"There was a man called Vasco da Gama" - she tells us - " and he sailed and sailed around Africa, and he was told, don't do it! The earth is flat and you will fall off!   But he was successful!"  Stina is delighted. -" But after that, Africa grew poor. Who knows why?"

The room is silent.    I venture - "Colonialism and the slave trade?"   I get applause.    During the break, Stina approaches me - "Have you studied the history of Africa?" she asks, astounded.

I answer, equally astounded, "In Poland every child knows about it!"

Second lecture. The history of Humana.  Anna speaks.  " Humana People to People was founded within the framework of TVIND in 1977, as a movement against apartheid " she explains. " Because we fought it, now our aim is to help people. We work in 32 countries, we run 155 projects, we have 2 million members, the main base of Humana People to People is in Zimbabwe."

She projects a photo of a gigantic building onto the wall - a cross between a church and an office block against a background of azure blue skies.   The Tvindalert site contains the information that Amdi Petersen's dream was to construct such a huge building in Zimbabwe that it would be visible from the moon.

Anna passes onto the attack. "Various people say things about TVIND. Just what would you call a group of people who live together and share their money?"

Shy proposals from the room: - Democracy, a Communist system, a Community.

Anna is satisfied. -"You see!  And some call the Teachers Group a sect. What nonsense! Has anybody heard anything about this?"

An Icelander raises his hand.

 Anna shakes her head. "This is because the Danish government doesn't like us.   They gather these opinions about us.   We were against atomic energy, we built a windmill for ecologically produced energy, we manage special schools.    The Danish government said we managed these schools wrongly and punished us with a 5 million crown fine. They took our schools."

Anna mocks the idea that she could be in a sect.  "There are things published about me on the internet, that I'm a sterilized lesbian who doesn't have a family life.  But I live among people from TVIND - they are my family - and I just have lots of dogs!"

We all laugh at the idea that this small blonde could be a member of a sect.

"Any questions?" Anna looks round the room.

I  go ahead, " And who is the leader of the Teachers Group?"

She clearly does not like my question. She stops smiling. "We rule together. All the Teachers.   We get together once a month in different places and we discuss TVIND strategies.  Some stupid journalists have made up the idea that we are ruled by Amdi Petersen from his flat in Miami. Rubbish!    We haven't had contact with him since 1979.   Maybe he isn't even alive any more. Yes, we do have a flat in Miami, but it belongs to TVIND. We must have somewhere to get together and think. "

Lunch break. I go out of the room and catch a  conversation between two English women from Manchester: - "and they have to have this flat in Miami? They could get together in Juelsminde, after all - it's such a big place..."

After my return to Poland, I checked Anna's information about relations between TVIND and the Danish government.   Over many years the Danish government invested a lot of money in TVIND- managed schools.  However, it was shown that the children learnt very little there and were often used (? made to work? mistreated? abused? fk).     In 1996,  the schools were  confiscated and the organisation was ordered to pay back grants-in-aid to the tune of 5 million crowns.    Only a few schools remained under Tvind control,  for children from deeply disturbed families - almost like borstals.

It's eleven in the evening, still Saturday.   I have had enough.   I haven't had a minute to myself since seven in the morning.   Incessantly, lectures or dish-washing or laying tables.   Nobody was alone for a moment.   The sea is 20 metres from the building.   I had no time to go on the beach.   Now I drooped in an armchair in the corridor. All day long, I have been trying to ask Anna or Rene questions. They didn't want to talk to me. - "Not now, I don't have time, dinner is coming..." I wait for a conversation with some of them, during which time i must make the decision whether to join TVIND

"Magda, don't sit like that" my instructor Giuseppe from Italy attaches himself to me.    In two weeks he finishes his half year's course and is off to Mozambique. "Come on, we'll go and have fun".

I don't go. Anna calls me in for a conversation.

 

First, Denmark, after that we 'll send you  

I am surprised. "What money?"

Anna: "For the school., 1700 crowns."

Me:  " No. Anyway, I don't know yet if I want to join"

Anna :" You've got until Sunday evening"

Me:" This is a difficult decision, give me more time"

Anna:"OK. Till next Friday."

Me: " All day I've been wanting to ask you something - can I now?"

Anna agrees. I ask her whether during the half year stay at the school I will have a visa and a work permit, for fundraising.

She explains briefly; " Poles can spend 3 months in Denmark legally.   After that, we will send you to England.   Fundraising is largely a matter of selling newspapers on the streets and you don't need a permit for that."

She counts up how much money I should have "on account" after the half-year of training :  "You must pay for 8 months of courses. The first 6 months you spend at one of our schools, then after coming back from Africa, you'll return to us for two months.   You must pay 2500 crowns for each month. that's to say, 20 thousand for 8 months; 300 crowns' pocket-money for each month; and 5500 crowns for the plane to Africa" - she pokes her finger at the calculator- " Altogether, that's 29,600 crowns ( over 14 thousand zlotys)."

And Anna didn't mention money from fundraising.   The norm for that is 4500 crowns monthly.   It means that the school will make 275 thousand zlotys from me!    Anna hid also that if you leave the school within the first 6 months, you have to pay a penalty of 7,000 crowns.

Anna asks, " Which programme interests you?"

Me: " Taking care of children in Mozambique"

She brings me down to earth:  "That's impossible. You can participate in Total Control of the Epidemic."

I go out into the corridor. Some people have already had their conversations - some of them have already signed contracts with TVIND (about 60%).   Including my room-mate, Arlette from Switzerland.   She is 20, and before starting her further studies wants to have some interesting life experiences.   She's excited: "Wonderful! I will save the world!"

Instructors congratulate her. In a month, Arlette will be returning here with her large rucksack to begin the course.

Several Germans are standing in a corner. They are speaking excitedly: " The cook is German, also in TVIND. He gave us a friendly warning not to believe everything we are told here. What is going on?!"

Marta from Poland is sceptical too.   She did not agree to sign the contract immediately; "I don't like them wanting to send  us from one country to another after 3 months. This way of working  doesn't look good for them (??FK)

Krzysztof, from a place near Posan, stands close to the wall: " It looks like a sect.   It's a good thing this ends tomorrow"

At the beginning of his stay with TVIND, Tomek was convinced that the school would settle his temporary visa.   After three months he asked why he hadn't yet got it.

He was told by Rene:" The Danish government doesn't like us and doesn't want to give visas to TVIND students. But don't worry, they've never checked so far."

Tomas recalls," I wrote a letter to the Danish Ministry of Education asking if there were any problems obtaining visas for TVIND students. The answer was that there were no problems, because the schools were legal.    So I asked why they didn't give them to us. The answer surprised me; "Because nobody had asked for them."      I assume that TVIND doesn't want the government to know how many volunteers are taking part in their courses."