James's story

Having read your Tvind website with interest I am writing to you to detail my experiences as a Tvind survivor. This is for two main reasons; firstly and foremostly to try to warn others of the Tvind/Humana network, and secondly to vent some of my anger and frustration, at what I see as being a rather elaborate con trick. 

My name is XXXXX XXXXXXX, and I am a recent graduate on my second Gap Year. I joined Tvind for the obvious reasons; to try to help people and to travel.   I therefore travelled to Denmark in February to begin my four month education at the Tvind Travelling Folk High School, near Ulfborg. These four months I can only describe as my most unpleasant and generally pointless experience to date.

This is for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, was the education I received, or did not, as the case may be. The facilities at the school for learning can only be described as close to nonexistent. They consisted of a rather small library, half of which was in Danish, the other half dwelling on such vital subjects to a "Development Instructor" as knitting, a Citroen 2CV manual, a six volume set on the subject of rice and a selection of extremely second rate novels.

In their brochure Tvind make a great deal about their computer network, which guarantees everyone their own computer and which is linked to a central databank which contains all the knowledge a "Development Instructor" will need. The number of computers at the school fluctuated from 5 to 10, depending on how many could be persuaded to function, for approximately 15 to 20 students.

The central databank can only be described as a travesty. It had been written by past Tvind members and generally either consisted of half-arsed gibberish written in extremely bad English dealing with such irrelevancies as whether extraterrestrial life exists, and tutorials on how to be an independent thinking person, (surely a paradox there), or was photocopied from books.

Due to their lack of knowledge on the somewhat grandiose topics they were covering, the creators of the database had either photocopied mainly irrelevant, or sometimes wrong information. They had obviously copied a degree level medical textbook for the tutorials on malaria, diphtheria, etc which proved rather incomprehensible without a degree in medicine.

The other facilities at the school consisted of a broken, unheated, half full swimming pool, a pair of football goals, and a sauna which was admittedly quite pleasant. Unfortunately for the 7000 kronas per month I was paying, (about 650), this did not represent value for money.

Ultimately the raison d'etre behind behind Tvind, and indeed the rest of the schools in the Tvind network is to raise money. For my 4 month stay at the school I had to pay 15,000 kronas, (about 1,200) down on arrival, which I was stupid enough to do.    I then had to raise 4,500 krona per month for school fees.

To do this we were sent onto the street to sell Tvind's brochures. We would approach people on the street, and beg, plead, harass or almost force people to buy a grotty 10 page newspaper for 50 krona, (4.50). Obviously if we said this money was to go to the upkeep of Tvind schools people would be rather reluctant to part with their cash. This is because Tvind has a fairly awful reputation in Denmark, and indeed in Scandinavia, and because most people are not particularly interested in contributing to the upkeep of half a dozen huts in a field.

We therefore said it was to fund the eventual project in Mozambique, which proved quite effective as the floods had just hit Mozambique. We did have to raise the money to fund our project in Mozambique, but only after the school fees had been raised.

What were these school fees for? Partly for things like heating, advertising. etc, but mainly for the teacher's pay. There were 5 teachers there, each on 9,000 kronas per month, as well as the headmistress who would presumably be earning considerably more.

The teachers did not however keep their wages. Approx 80% or 8,400 kronas went to the Teacher's Group, which is in essence almost a feudal system which more or less owned the teachers.   When they signed their contract, which was more often than not a lifetime contract which is highly unusual, each teacher agreed to common time and common money clauses. This meant that the Teacher's Group organisation could tell any teacher at any time of the day or night to do anything, and they had to do it.   Essentially they had no time to call their own, and were NEVER off duty. They did not have it easy. Common money meant that they had to contribute 80% of their wages and ANY OTHER MONEY they may have to the organization.

Why then did these teacher's join this Group.  In essence, because they were not particularly intelligent or well educated people. I f my particular teacher had not joined the Teacher's Group he would still be working as a toolmaker in a factory in Germany.  In my opinion if the headmistress had stayed in the real world she would be lucky to be employed as a toilet cleaner.

This organization therefore offered people a way out of their monotonous, routine lives, and gave them the chance to be something they were not qualified to be, and which in the real world they would not have the chance to be. There was also the promise of the large house, the obligatory white Mercedes 190, and a reasonably comfortable lifestyle once you were placed in charge of a school. I am, however, also sure that genuinely humanitarian and altruistic reason did play a part in their decision.

The Teacher's Group also owned the school buildings. They were paid a rent out the money we paid in our school fees. I don't know how much this was but I expect it was vastly more than the place was worth. Therefore the whole raison d'etre behind the school was to raise money: firstly to give to the Teacher's Group and secondly to maintain the school and pay for its advertising so it could attract more volunteers.

You also raised enough money to pay for your project. Having got out to Africa after six months of hard slogging and paying through the nose, quite a few people found themselves working in Humana's clothes shops out there, or trying to raise funds from big companies out there, all of which money went to Humana. Personally I found that quite sickening.

From beginning to end these people were working to raise money for the schools, for the Teacher's Group or for Tvind. Why did people then volunteer? The short answer is that everyone comes without knowledge of what Tvind is, and what they will have to put up with during the next six months.

Having discovered what it really is about, approximately 60%-70% leave, each losing various amounts of money that they have had to pay over on the day they arrive. For the rest the prospect of going to Africa means they stay.

Without a doubt, though, everyone I ever met whilst at Tvind genuinely detested the organization and the people. The only thing I learnt at Tvind is, in the words of another student there, "how fucking stupid I can be". If you wish to contact me to ask any questions, or if I can be of any use, please do not hesitate to email me.

Yours Sincerely