Tvind
Encyclopedia
Tvind is an international school centre in the small town of Ulfborg in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, founded in 1970. The schools in Denmark are a progressive part of the Danish educational landscape and have educated more than 40,000 students over the years.

The Schools have educated teachers, sailors as well as teens who follow the longstanding Scandinavian tradition of spending the last year of primary school in a boarding school called a 'Continuation school'. The schools have for many years been a substantial addition to the Danish school system, and most of the schools have taught according to state curricula in cooperation with the relevant authorities.

As an alternative to the formal education system the Tvind schools have often been controversial in its programs and attitudes to education, but have been the driving force in many pedagogical changes in school programming and content. In particular The Necessary Teachers Training College which educates primary school teachers has been very influential over the years.

Tvind has long been embroiled in controversy. Numerous media reports worldwide as well as investigations conducted by several European governments allege that in reality, Tvind is a political cult
Political cult
Political cult is a term used to describe some groups that are generally considered to be on the political fringe. Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult" is sometimes applied are religious in nature, some are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on...

 involved in financial criminal activities
Financial crimes
Financial crimes are crime against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property to one's own personal use and benefit...

. (See 'Allegations of organised criminal activity')

History

Tvind began when a group of young Danish people got together in the late 1960s with plans to form an experimental traveling folk high school
Folk high school
Folk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...

. They wanted to gain knowledge about the third world and to find solutions to combat poverty. They therefore decide to travel around the World in an old bus to see the world and meet people from other countries and classes.

This idea was developed into The Traveling Folk High School built on the Scandinavian tradition of 'Folk High schools', which is a way for grown ups to continue educating themselves in general areas. Folk High Schools are public institutions subsidized and supported by the ministry of Education.

As The Traveling Folk High School was created by young people who wanted to learn about the world, it attracted young people who wanted to learn about the world, and the school quickly grew with more Traveling High Schools, a Continuation school for teens from 13-16 years,a Teachers Training college 'The Necessary Teachers Training college', and others. Also schools were established in other countries.

Location of Tvind

In 1970 a base was found in West Jutland
Jutland
Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

 on a plot of farming land called Tvind, where several schools were built as well as a teachers training college. All of the schools received public subsidies in accordance with the very liberal Danish law of education at the time.

Progression in the 1970s and 1980s

The Tvind Corporation soon became a popular center for youth counter culture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

 in the 1970s and 1980s. They undertook social development projects in the third world and developed some groundbreaking social and environmental experiments. For example in the mid 1970s Tvind, in a massive collaboration effort with students and teachers, constructed what was then the world's largest electricity producing windmill on the school grounds.

Tvind schools began to emerge and in 1997 there were 32 schools allocated all over Denmark, including the teachers training college, traveling folk high schools, youth schools and schools for youngsters and adults with special educational needs. An estimated 40.000 children, youth and adults have attended the Tvind schools since the foundation first began in 1970.

The Teachers Group

The Teachers Group, which is an international community that bases its principles along the lines of having a common economy, common time and common distribution (of what actual work position to take up). Since 1970 the Teachers Group has grown to have approximately 1000 members.

International work

Throughout the years the Teachers Group has expanded, with its varied global activities and growing status, some people consider it to be a "modern global corporation." Others might argue that no articles of incorporation for a "Teachers Group" as such exist, and that the group could be more accurately described as a decentralized network of people organized around common goals.

The teachers group now runs a network of schools, industries and agricultural productions throughout the world, as well as collecting used garments from the public and selling them in Europe, South America and Africa. A large number of properties around the world have also been purchased by the members' joint savings.

Members of the Teachers Group also run a number of development aid projects in the Third World, through development aid organizations affiliated to the Humana People to People movement.

Humana People to People

Humana People to People was founded in 1977, inspired by the Teachers Group. The enthusiasm of the teachers that had traveled over the third world generated projects and actions to do more. They wanted to do more in the third world to raise the quality of life, to reach more people and to target fundamental issues to acquire humanizing conditions for people in need.

These factors are still in process today and there are now 35 national associations connected to the Humana People to People movement. The associations are working in 42 countries around the world, operating over 265 projects and involving more than 10 million people on a daily basis.
They are still expanding and strengthening each year and in 2007 the Humana movement started their first project in Latin America, the headline being “Fight Poverty”.

Allegations of organised criminal activity

Tvind has for decades generated considerable controversy worldwide. Numerous media reports as well as investigations by European governments have suggested that Tvind, also known as Teachers Group, is actually a political cult
Political cult
Political cult is a term used to describe some groups that are generally considered to be on the political fringe. Although the majority of groups to which the term "cult" is sometimes applied are religious in nature, some are non-religious and focus either on secular self-improvement or on...

 involved in financial criminal activities
Financial crimes
Financial crimes are crime against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property to one's own personal use and benefit...

.

In Denmark, Tvind leaders have been prosecuted for serious financial crimes, with two convictions in separate trials, in 2006 and 2009 respectively.

Every year, alleged Tvind-run charities in The United States, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and elsewhere are said to receive millions of dollars in governmental and private-sector funding intended for Tvind-related humanitarian programmes in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and elsewhere in the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

. However, The Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime
Danish Prosecution Service
The Danish Prosecution Service comprises the Director of Public Prosecutions , the regional prosecutors and on the lowest level the chief police constables .-Purpose:...

 in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 alleges that in reality, Tvind members cleverly channelled a portion of funds earmarked for charitable use into purchases of property and luxury items, offshore tax havens and private business investments, all controlled by Tvind's top leaders.

Tvind was founded circa 1970 by Mogens Amdi Petersen, then a young, radical
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...

 idealist in Denmark. Handsome, charismatic and driven, Petersen is said to have collected about 40 followers and established an alternative school system for troubled youth in Denmark. Funded by the government, Tvind’s “travelling folk high schools” sent teachers and students together to Third World countries with the ambition of improving living standards of the poor.

In 1977, Tvind members founded the Humana People to People Movement to oversee several humanitarian aid projects in the Third World. In Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 the group is known as “Ulandshjælp fra Folk til Folk” (UFF).

Headquartered in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

, Humana People to People claims on its website to be a "network of non-profit aid organizations in Europe, North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Africa, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, all working in the field of international solidarity, cooperation and development."

But the programmes of several of the non-profit aid organisations Humana People to People claims as its members have been frequently criticised by former volunteers as being ineffective, culturally insensitive, environmentally unsustainable and even abusive towards the volunteers.

The Danish media
Media of Denmark
The media of Denmark is dominated by a few large corporations. In printed media JP/Politikens Hus and Berlingske Media, between them, control the largest news papers Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and Jyllands Posten and major tabloids BT and Ekstrabladet. In television publicly owned stations...

 began to suspect Tvind of fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

 by the late 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. Petersen, growing increasingly paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...

 and claiming to be a target for the SIS
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...

 and the CIA, disappeared one day in 1979, not to be seen again for the next 22 years.

The elusive Dane
Danes
Danish people or Danes are the nation and ethnic group that is native to Denmark, and who speak Danish.The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century...

 is alleged to have continued to covertly run his organisation from various locations, subverting Tvind's original 'humanitarian' mission to create a lucrative financial web using standard money-laundering techniques to build a business empire based on property and used clothes collection.

Tvind has since then grown into a global conglomerate with numerous profit-motivated enterprises reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Its interests range from farming and timber to property, retail clothing and furniture, with businesses in Europe, the United States, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Malaysia and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

Alleged Tvind-run organisations have placed tens of thousands of used clothes collection bins — most of these ostensibly for charitable purposes — throughout The United States and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

. Humana People-to-People’s donation bins can be found in many European countries except in Scandinavia, where clothes are collected under the name UFF.

In the UK, clothes collection organisations said to be tied to Tvind include the for-profit companies Green World Recycling and Planet Aid-UK, as well as the charity called Development Aid from People to People UK (DAPP-UK).

In the United States, the charities Planet Aid
Planet Aid
Planet Aid is a non-profit organization that collects and sells donated clothing and shoes to support sustainable development in impoverished communities around the world...

 and Gaia Movement Living Earth Green World Action and the for-profit company USAgain — each said to be controlled by Tvind — have placed thousands of clothes collection bins nationwide.

In addition, there are two other alleged Tvind-run clothes collecting organisations in the U.S. that further claim to train volunteers for humanitarian projects overseas: Institute for International Cooperation and Development (IICD) with a regional presence in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, and Campus California (formerly Campus California TG), which claims to have placed over 1,000 of its used clothes donation bins in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 and about 200 bins in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

.

In February
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 days. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 days in leap years...

 2002, FBI agents in the U.S. arrested Amdi Petersen between international flights at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...

. An arrest warrant
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....

 on Petersen had been issued in 2000 by the international police agency Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

. A federal judge
United States federal judge
In the United States, the title of federal judge usually means a judge appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate in accordance with Article II of the United States Constitution....

 extradited the lanky, silver-haired guru to Denmark, where he and his top assistants would face trial for a multi-million dollar tax fraud and embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....

 scheme.

The highly publicised trial began in March of 2003. Three years later, on August 31 2006, Petersen, Tvind spokesperson Poul Jørgensen, top aids Kirsten Larsen and Ruth Sejerøe-Olsen, former chairperson for Tvind's 'Humanitarian Foundation' Bodil Ross Sørensen, financial director Marlene Gunst, and lawyer Kirsten Fuglsbjerg (aka
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 'Christie Pipps') were all acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...

 of charges
Criminal charge
A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority asserting that somebody has committed a crime. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can take several forms, including:* complaint...

. However, another former chairperson of Tvind's 'Humanitarian Foundation,' Sten Byrner, was found guilty of fraud and given a one-year conditional sentence
Conditional sentence (Canada)
A conditional sentence is a non-custodial punishment for crime in Canada.-Description:Conditional refers to rules the offender must follow in order to remain out of prison, which are similar to when one is on parole. Conditional sentences should not apply in certain cases, such as the infamous case...

.

The Public Prosecutor in Denmark immediately appealed the verdict
Verdict
In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...

 to a higher court. However, 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.

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.

List of some Tvind schools

  • Det Nødvendige Seminarium
    Det Nødvendige Seminarium
    Det Nødvendige Seminarium is a private teacher training college in Denmark driven by the Tvind organization....

     (DNS), Ulfborg, Denmark
  • DRH Juelsminde
    Juelsminde municipality
    Until January 1, 2007 Juelsminde municipality was a municipality in Vejle County on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality included the island of Hjarnø, and covered an area of 240 km². It had a total population of 15,555 . Its last mayor was Peter Schmidt...

    , Denmark
  • DRH Holstead, Denmark
  • DRH South Sealand, Denmark
  • DRH Bustrup, Denmark
  • CICD, England
  • One World Volunteer Institute, Norway
  • IICD, Massachusetts, USA
  • IICD, Michigan, USA
  • CID, St Vincent and the Grenadines
  • KNEC, Durban
    Durban
    Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

    , South Africa
  • TCDG, Sikkim
    Sikkim
    Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...

    , India
  • YID, Yunnan
    Yunnan
    Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

    , China

Tvind websites


Criticism

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