Christmas Parcel Campaign of Stiftung Kinderzukunft:
Small parcels, big joy – for you too

Today, we would like to invite you to join us in bring­ing Christ­mas joy to chil­dren in need in East­ern and South-East­ern Europe. Valdivia Consult­ing has support­ed the Kinderzukun­ft Foun­da­tion’s unique campaign for the past four years, in which young recip­i­ents receive a surprise Christ­mas parcel contain­ing a person­al gift that they would other­wise hard­ly ever receive.

Just a parcel? For Daria, it repre­sents hope for a better life.

‘Seeing my child so happy is the great­est Christ­mas joy for me!’ admits Tatjana, the young moth­er of Daria (name changed). Daria will turn two in Decem­ber 2025. Her moth­er and father live with their daugh­ter in the small town of Anina (German name: Steier­dorf), around 140 kilo­me­tres from the thriv­ing city of Timișoara – and in a complete­ly differ­ent world.

The picturesque image of the town in the Carpathi­an Moun­tains is decep­tive. Up close, it is ruins and empty hous­es that catch the eye. On 14 Janu­ary 2006, fate struck when a mining acci­dent shook the town, killing seven miners. Short­ly after­wards, the mine closed, leav­ing 550 fami­lies with­out an income. The commu­ni­ty is still strug­gling to survive today.

Tatjana welcomed the foun­da­tion’s volun­teers into her home, which is more of a refuge than a prop­er dwelling. There is no running water. Damp creeps through the walls, mould spreads and plas­ter crum­bles. Urgent repairs are need­ed, but build­ing mate­ri­als have become unaf­ford­able. The fami­ly cannot even afford wood to heat the house. Her husband tries to earn a few Roman­ian lei work­ing as a day labour­er while she stays with Daria. When Daria receives the Christ­mas parcel, a spark of hope shines in her moth­er’s eyes, and she says, “This Christ­mas gift has given my daugh­ter and me hope. My great­est wish is that she will have a better future than I did.’

Santa Claus arrives in a 40-tonne lorry

For 30 years, the Kinderzukun­ft foun­da­tion has been encour­ag­ing people to wrap Christ­mas gifts for chil­dren in need, and the idea has been extreme­ly success­ful: in 2024, around 37,000 presents were collect­ed at vari­ous loca­tions and trans­port­ed by truck to Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina, Roma­nia, and Ukraine. Local employ­ees and part­ner organ­i­sa­tions then took over, deliv­er­ing the gifts direct­ly to chil­dren in nurs­eries, orphan­ages, schools, clin­ics, and even slums in towns and villages.

It is strik­ing that Roma­nia, an EU member state, is in need of such aid at all. Howev­er, condi­tions there are very differ­ent from those in Germany. The aver­age salary is around 60 per cent lower, and the pover­ty line is approx­i­mate­ly €325 (in Germany, it is around €1,200) per person per month. Social assis­tance is virtu­al­ly non-exis­tent; the so-called mini­mum income for one person is around 286 lei (approx. 59 euros). For people like Tatjana and her fami­ly, this means a daily strug­gle for survival, with little scope for extras like treats for children.

Get involved – it’s easy!

Would you like to bring real, tangi­ble joy to a child? It’s easy to put togeth­er a suit­able gift:

Take a shoe­box or simi­lar-sized card­board box. This ensures that all chil­dren receive gifts of rough­ly the same size and makes trans­port­ing them easier.

Fill it with sweets, toys, stationery, craft supplies and possi­bly hygiene items or a scarf. All items should be suit­able for chil­dren, and new or in good condition.

• Wrap the box with ribbon to make it easi­er to move and load.

Bring or send your parcel(s) to one of the collec­tion points between 24 Octo­ber and 24 Novem­ber 2025.

You can find all infor­ma­tion about the campaign on the foun­da­tion’s website. You can also direct any ques­tions by email to Ehrenamt.Weihnachten@kinderzukunft.de or by tele­phone on 06051/4818–19, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on 06051/4818–19.

Spread joy as a team-build­ing exercise!

For compa­nies, there are also many ways to partic­i­pate and to get involved. Indi­vid­ual employ­ees have often inspired their colleagues and supe­ri­ors with this idea. There are sever­al ways to partic­i­pate. For exam­ple, many compa­nies have made pack­ing parcels togeth­er a popu­lar team-build­ing event.

Compa­nies can also collect parcels inter­nal­ly or act as a public collec­tion point. Some compa­nies support their employ­ees’ commit­ment by, for exam­ple, donat­ing the trans­port costs (€4 per parcel). Others donate towards trans­port costs or spon­sor one of the ship­ping trips. Even shar­ing infor­ma­tion about the campaign on your social media chan­nels helps: with just one click, you could give a child like Daria a wonder­ful Christ­mas surprise!

Stiftung Kinderzukun­ft

Chil­dren’s Future Foundation

Rabenaus­traße 1a, D‑63584 Gründau

Vera Berd­ing

Direc­tor of Market­ing and Public Relations

Tel.: +49 60 51 48 18 14

Fax: +49 60 51 48 18 10

E‑Mail: vera.berding@kinderzukunft.de

Web: www.kinderzukunft.de

Bank account: Commerzbank Hanau

IBAN: DE79 5064 0015 0222 2222 00

BIC: COBADEFFXXX

Please state “Valdivia Future – Christ­mas 2025” as the refer­ence for your donation.

(Image source: Stiftung Kinderzukunft)

Sources

• EARLY Zeit­er­fas­sung in Unternehmen, Timeu­lar GmbH, August 2024
• „Durch­schnitts­ge­halt in Deutsch­land“, beat­vest / Statis­tis­ches Bunde­samt, 2025
• „Para­dox Rumänien: Aufstrebende Wirtschaft, armutsge­fährdete Bevölkerung“, Radio Româ­nia Inter­națion­al, Janu­ar 2025
• „Armuts­bericht 2025“, Paritätis­ch­er Wohlfahrtsver­band, Juni 2025