The first of Tvind’s ‘travelling folk high schools’ were created in the early 1970s to send teachers and students together to Third World countries with the ambition of improving living standards of the poor. Collectively called 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. These students also say they were required to beg for money on American or European city streets and were exploited as free labor benefiting Teachers Group (TG), the controlling body of the broader Tvind organisation.
Here is a list of the DRH schools:
One World Center, Williamstown, Massachusetts (formerly IICD Massachusetts), USA [update: closed in early 2017. The school site is now for sale by its owner, The TG-run AS Properties.]
One World Center, Dowagiac, Michigan (formerly IICD Michigan), USA
College for International Cooperation and Development (CICD), Hull, England
DRH Norway, Lillehammer
Richmond Vale Academy, St Vincent, Caribbean
KwaZulu-Natal Experimental College, South Africa
The Necessary Teacher Training College, Tvind, Denmark
Other Danish DRH schools
The schools are promoted through Humana People-to-People, Planet Aid and the TG’s other used clothes collection and volunteering enterprises.
