824. Academy at Dundee Ranch

In 2003 PANI raided a boarding school named Academy at Dundee Ranch located in Costa Rica. The raid resulted in criminal charges but the trial had to be cancelled because many of the employees were foreigners who had left the country before the trial.

The academy was a franchise under the WWASP organization and with the closure after the raid, the school joined the list of so many schools operating in the same franchise which were closed by authorities in a number of countries.

It is safe to say that it could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Costa Rica government closes controversial ‘tough love’ youth camp (TICO Times)
• Inside the ‘troubled teen’ school so disturbing it still gives ex-students nightmares (Babe.net)
• Dundee Ranch survivor tells of the raid and riot when it was closed, and his escape into the Costa Rican jungles (Reddit)

823. Revival Church Kawaala

Being a 15 year old looking for answers regarding religion, it would not be the best choice to go to Revival Church Kawaala. A young woman did and as result she was raped, she claimed. A lot of investigations were pending against the church but with the death of Pastor Augustine Yiga, only the future will show if the problems were due to him or the church in general.

However it is safe to state that it could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• The good, the bad and the ugly of pastor Augustine Yiga (The Observer)
• Male calls for judicial inquiry into pastors (The Observer)
• Pastor Yiga detained for raping, impregnating woman (Edge)

822. Børnehjemmet Strandberg

The childrens home Strandberg was located in Virum. It was a so-called Christian children’s home and it seems that the manager sometime weighed religion over mental diagnoses. The former manager died in 2014.

It could not have been fun to be placed there as a child in need of special professional care.

Sources:

• Børnehjem i Virum 1960’erne? – Fundet – TAK!! (DIS-Forum)
• En barndom i helvede: Heinz blev hjernevasket på børnehjem (Ekstra-Bladet)
• Heinz Breinholdt Tomis barndomsvanvid på 14 Hospitaler og institutioner (Prívat blog)

821. Windermere School

Windermere School is a boarding school founded in 1863. The price tag for a stay of a child is around 30,000 pounds per year. Unfortunately the price tag is no guarantee for a quality and supportive stay at the school. In 2020 a 14-year-old boy died after intense bullying. One example is that his his classmates smeared faeces on his pillow.

Short to say that it cannot be fun to be there as a student.

Sources:

• Bullied boy, 14, at £30,000-a-year boarding school took his own life after his classmates smeared faeces on his pillow, an inquest heard (The Daily Mail)
• Boy, 14, killed himself after boarding school bullies smeared faeces on his pillow (Metro UK)
• (The Izzy Dix Anti Bullying Memorial Group)