Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE)

A Teachers Group project to combat Aids.    Lauded in some parts of Africa but beginning to attract criticism from independent observers and former participants.

"The TCE program (Total Control of the  Epidemic) is a complete swindle."
 
March 2004.  Lise writes:  : The TCE program (Total Control of the Epidemic) is a complete swindle.

It is designed as what appears to be a program to combat HIV and AIDS, control the epidemic and prolong the lives of those found to be HIV-positive. In actual fact, it is designed to make money for Tvind, a huge multinational corporation registered in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Panama, etc.
 
No one is helped by the program other than the leaders of Tvind. One of the leaders of the program is ****** ****** [name removed for legal reasons - ed], who drives a Mercedes Benz cabriolet and has a yacht (Red House Lugger) at her private disposal. She is also a bisexual who uses her staff as sexual servants.
 
The money is gotten through contributions from government funds and from organizations that are meant to help the Third World. Students at Tvind schools are forced to collect money and teachers and other personnel are also forced to contribute, otherwise they are fired. Tvind gets a lot of money for teaching these students and then also forces them to collect
money for the TCE program.
 
Money is also collected by volunteers who only get room and board and a very small allowance. although they make huge profits for Tvind and its leaders live lives of luxury and depravation.
 
The TCE program itself consists of restaurants where tofu-based meals are served. The restaurants are a for-profit business and the HIV/AIDS patients have to pay for their meals. No free meals are given, not even to very needy people. Tofu is not a traditional diet of these areas.   

Thus the restaurants are a threat to the way of life of native farmers.  Even their livelihoood as the tofu is supplied by Tvind. Tvind also makes a profit on that.
 
In my job as a secretary at Tvind, I heard people say that TCE was developed solely to sell tofu which would otherwise have to be destroyed. The tofu meals are absolutely useless in prolonging the lives of HIV/AIDS patients. There is absolutely no research that even gives it the slightest credibility. Else Grue Sørensen and other Tvind leaders like Poul Lange know this very well - I have heard them talk about it.
 
I have personall worked on the TCE project, both abroad and in Denmark. I have also been involved in other Tvind projects, such as building a luxury yacht for the leaders.
 
********* ********* [a named programme leader - name removed for legal reasons] is a personal friend of Amdi Petersen, the founder of Tvind, who at present stands trial for million-dollar frauds. She is also a racist who refers to colored people as "monkeys" and "niggers."
 
Lise Tvervad
 
P.t. Windhoek, Namibia.

[message forwarded to Tvind Alert, March 2004]

Feb 2004:    Johnson and Johnson award for work with TCE

Message to Tvind Alert

Tvind Alert comments:  Jumping on the Aids bandwagon?

'Hope' or TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic)  is an Aids project run by the Teachers Group in southern Africa, using a handful of volunteers to conduct aids awareness campaigns in remote areas..

Hope Humana and TCE has sometimes received a relatively good press.   Humana's anti-aids work has been awarded a prize by AGFUND, the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (a charitable body in Saudi Arabia - not part of the UN),  and it has also been selected as the national Aids scheme by one or two African governments.

Even so Hope has plenty of critics.   In Denmark the national Aids foundation has demanded that Hope is debarred from using the internationally-recognised red ribbon symbol.   Aids in Africa is an emotive issue and allows the Teachers Group to raise huge sums    -     many questions have been asked about exactly how the money is used, whether Hope's aims for 'Total Control of the Epidemic' (TCE) are realistic (or just rhetoric - it has claimed it can wipe out the epidemic in three years), and whether its campaigns are effective.

Newspaper reports

    Danish Aids foundation disassociates itself from Tvind

from Jyske Vestkysten, Denmark, October 2000

ESBJERG:  AIDS-Foundation with the actress Susse Wold as president  and professor Peter Skinhøj as chairman don´t want to be mistaken for Tvind.

At a meeting next week the AIDS-foundation will demand that Tvind no longer will use the international symbol for the fight against AIDS ­ the red ribbon ­ at money collections,  writes the ”Jyske Vestkysten”.

Teachers and pupils from the Danish Tvinds Institutions have, as a part of an International Tvind action, earlier this year been on the streets to collect money for the fight against AIDS in Africa.

Tvind believe  they can stop AIDS­epidemics in Africa in three years if they can collect sufficient economic support for it.

At the Tvinds first collection the AIDS-foundation had phone calls from many people who did not know that it was the Tvind who was organising the money collection.

Two DAPP workers shot in northern Namibia  January 2000

Hope projects

Hope Humana People to People, Namibia

Hope Nigeria

December 2001: a team from CCTG California walked out of training for the new Hope Nigeria.   A correspondent writes: "The only good thing is some teams see straight through it with the help of Tvind Alert. Like in California one whole team walked out from the programme they had set up to teach about Aids in Nigeria (again with no experience and no team leader to a new country)"

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 Tvind Alert, All Rights Reserved

 Permission is granted to reproduce the materials posted here provided that they are credited as "Source: Tvind Alert (http://www.tvindalert.com)"