Tășuleasa Social

The Christmas Truck is one of our first projects, as old as the organization. One that we run every year with our partners, Die Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe. Together, we distribute presents to children in rural communities in Romania, more recently especially those on the Via Transilvanica and some even reach the Republic of Moldova. The packages contain basic necessities as well as gifts from kids in Germany for the Romanian children. The project initially targeted children in a precarious financial situation, but over time it has become a way of teaching children how to receive and give back. In 25 years we have reached over 500,000 beneficiaries.

Since the very first years of Tășuleasa Social Association, generations of students, teachers and volunteers from Langenzenn (SIR - Schüler Initiative Rumänienhilfe), Penzberg (PUR - Gymnasium Penzberg unterschtützt Rumänien), Die Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe and THW (Technisches Hilfswerk, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief) have played their part in the creation and development of the organization's campus, have exchanged experiences with young people in Romania and, in recent years, have contributed to the development of the Via Transilvanica route. They organize fundraisers during the year and work for a week in Romania every summer with other volunteers. Over the past few years, several private high schools in the country have joined the initiative, including Avenor College (Bucharest) and Transylvania College (Cluj-Napoca).

The actions that have made us nationally known are the reforestation. Environmental issues cannot be separated from the social ones. The afforestations started with a handful of young people from Germany who set an example for Romanian volunteers. Since then, year after year, the number of people taking part has steadily increased. In 2014, for the first edition of the Transylvania Forest, we gathered 1,500 people through promotion on digital platforms, which made us say that a good definition of volunteering could be "planting a tree in the shade of which you know you will never stay". The project has had six editions and is just one part of our reforestation program. Over the years, we have planted more than 1,000,000 trees.

Since 2011, we have created a special classroom in the Pedagogical Forest, where over the years we have taken over 10,000 children, trained generations of volunteers and talked about the importance of forests. This has given young people a place to learn about the role of trees and the forest through practical elements, guided tours, learning from the didactic elements and having fun using the forest itself as a classroom. In our vision these types of activities complemented the learning experience of the traditional classroom. All the experience was gained in nature which was the best teacher. In addition, for us teamwork is more important than individual performance, and this was something we wanted the students to understand from the very beginning. The Pedagogical Forest has also hosted international camps with participants from Germany and slightly-slightly from countries such as the Republic of Moldova, UK, USA, Turkey, Turkey, India, Belgium, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Egypt, just to name a few. We probably reached more than 20 countries all over the world.

To make sense of a social project like the Christmas Truck, we thought a lot about how to integrate the educational aspect. Because it teaches children how to give back, we created a response in the form of the "Ziua bună! Ziua voluntarilor mici" project. This gave them the opportunity to say thank you for their gifts by volunteering in their communities. Over the past seven editions, we have planted 92,500 saplings with students and teachers, collected more than 60,000 kilograms of waste and, in recent years, brought children closer to Via Transilvania through tour guide workshops and other activities. Over 70,000 pupils and teachers from 614 schools in 10 counties have been involved in this project!

It is the latest work of the Tășuleasa Social Association and our most ambitious project so far. A long-distance route, from Putna to Drobeta-Turnu Severin, 1,600 kilometers long, which can be traveled on foot, by bicycle or on horseback. It is a trail that links over 400 communities, mostly rural, in eight cultural-historical regions, revealing the diversity and beauty of the natural landscape, passing through 12 UNESCO sites and speaking about Romania as it is. In 2024 alone more than 60,000 hikers have already traveled parts of the route, people from home and abroad, from 36 different countries to be exact. Find out more about the trail here. In 2025 we have started the expansion of the trail, developing 170 new kilometers in Brașov county with the launch of Terra Borza Teutonica. And we have a lot of plans for the next 20 years!