One World Center Massachusetts
Tvind’s ‘Travelling Folk High Schools’ worldwide
Tvind’s ‘travelling folk high schools’ were created in the 1970s to send teachers and students together to Third World countries, hoping to help the poor. Known as the ‘DRH Movement’ (Den Rejsende Højskole in Danish), the schools have elicited many complaints from former students, with allegations ranging from low standards of ‘training’ to dire living conditions, unreasonable work hours, bullying and even a ‘cult-like’ atmosphere.
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Lars’s story: I was in the USA, and I was in a cult
Lars, 2003: It took me two years to be able to write this. I haven’t been able to deal with all the emotions since I drove off the hill at IICD, Williamstown in the summer of 1998 …
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Zahara Heckscher: Volunteered with IICD in Zambia
Our first day in the field, we were approached by a group of Zambian farmers who told us that the project had stolen their land. We [later] discovered that the Zambian workers on the project were applying pesticides on the project’s garden, without training or protective gear.
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Alive & Kicking …
From the Editor: We are pleased to report that a great deal of work has been done to improve the website. Here’s the story:
SHOPPING WITH AMDI. Finally, our summary of BT’s article series on Tvind, from last month, which began with new video footage of Amdi Petersen and two top aides shopping at a Costco supermarket in Ensenada, on Mexico’s Baja coast.![]()
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Sorry to have taken so long with this. But the translation of seven of BT’s nine articles took a few weeks. Then came the task of boiling down and summarising. Then we contributed many further details for a more complete perspective. We were also waiting to see whether we could get a copy of an internal Tvind ‘vision statement’ document that BT obtained and reported precious little about. So far, no luck.
Tvind’s fugitive kingpin filmed while shopping in Mexico - Tvind Alert
www.tvindalert.com
New video of fugitive Tvind leader, Amdi Petersen, and 2 of his aides shopp...
BY THOR’S HAMMER, WHAT A SAVINGS. This week, the Danish newspaper B.T. published a story with video footage of alleged cult kingpin, Mogens Amdi Petersen, and two high-ranking aides shopping at a Costco in Ensenada, Mexico. ![]()
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The video was shot by Thomas Vann Altheimer in October 2019.![]()
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Petersen is founder and leader of the Tvind Teachers Group, and for the past 14 years he and four of his top aides have been wanted by the judicial authority of their native Denmark for serious financial crimes. Since August 2013, the five have been listed on the Interpol website's 'Red Notices' database for wanted persons. ![]()
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The two women shown with ‘Amdi’ are Ruth Sejerø-Olsen and Marlene Gunst, who — since 1992 and as far as we know, still — form the cult's 2nd-level management, 'TG Finance', directly below Amdi and his girlfriend, Kirsten Larsen.![]()
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Amdi, Gunst, and Larsen are three of the five TG leaders who are Interpol-listed fugitives.![]()
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Ensenada is a 145 km/90 mile drive south of San Diego. Tvind's high-security, luxurious headquarters, 'TG Pacifico', lies 72 km/45 miles further south on the Baja coast. Amdi and several senior TG members are known to have been living there at least part-time for several years.![]()
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B.T. has also posted several follow-up stories this week, and we’re now working on a summary article in English. For the time being, non-Danes can at least watch the video!
THE GOOD FIGHT. After three years, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting finally speaks out: “Planet Aid’s actions in its lawsuit against Reveal are a manifest example of what deep-pocketed interests can do to a news organization even when the facts are on the journalists’ side.”![]()
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Reveal is to be commended for standing up to corporate bully Planet Aid, which is Tvind’s largest used clothing collector in the United States. Clearly, Planet Aid’s frivolous libel lawsuit is a desperate attempt to use litigation to silence the legitimate criticisms in Reveal’s excellent reporting.![]()
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Reveal isn’t alone. In the past, TvindAlert’s editors, too, have endured libel lawsuits brought against them by different Tvind companies. But Tvind lost all of those cases. ![]()
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We hope Reveal will soon have the same outcome.
Reveal has been fighting a lawsuit for three years. Now we’re speaking up about it
www.revealnews.org
After our reporting raised serious questions about an organization that has...
WEEK IN 'UTOPIA'. Interesting account by British writer who as a young man spent a week in 1975 with the Tvind collective near Ulfborg in western Denmark. The writer, Ken Worpole, is currently a Senior Professor at The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University.![]()
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We need to correct one glaring inaccuracy in Prof. Worpole’s account: He writes that “The Danish government has never managed to successfully prosecute any of the individuals associated with Tvind …“![]()
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Actually, two senior Tvind members have been convicted, although they got off quite lightly. The highly publicised Tvind trial began in March 2003 at the district court in Ringkøbing, Denmark. Three years later, in August 2006, Tvind leader Mogens Amdi Petersen, spokesman Poul Jørgensen, top aides Kirsten Larsen and Ruth Sejerøe-Olsen, former chairperson for Tvind's 'Humanitarian Fund' Bodil Ross Sørensen, financial director Marlene Gunst, and lawyer Kirsten Fuglsbjerg (aka 'Christie Pipps') were all acquitted of charges. However, another former chairperson of Tvind's 'Humanitarian Fund,' Sten Byrner, was partially acquitted but found guilty of debtor fraud and given a one-year conditional sentence [i.e. slap on wrist].![]()
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The Danish Public Prosecutor immediately appealed the verdict to a higher court. But the appeal is still pending for Petersen and four of the accused, all of whom fled Denmark shortly after being acquitted by the lower court.![]()
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Poul Jørgensen, who had remained in Denmark for the appeal trial, was found guilty of tax fraud and embezzlement in January 2009, and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. According to Danish prosecutors, Jørgensen diverted millions of dollars earmarked for charitable use into private businesses owned by Tvind leaders. Jørgensen is thought to have served only half of his sentence.
newhumanist.org.uk
Was the Danish radical schooling project known as Tvind a liberating new fr...
‘WE WENT THROUGH HELL’. A UK newspaper has uncovered new allegations of abuse at a Tvind-run school for troubled children in England, which operated from 1984 until 1998, when it was shut down by the authorities after the UK’s Charity Commission found 'serious financial impropriety' and investigated 'serious concerns about the safety and welfare of children.' ![]()
Pt. 1: tinyurl.com/y3drl7xz / Pt. 2: tinyurl.com/y6t44nda
Revealed: Fresh abuse allegations at children's 'home of horrors' with links to 'cult-like' group
tinyurl.com
Former pupils at a Norfolk school have today called for a fresh police inve...