Christmas Convoi

Service Name: Weihnachtspäckchenkonvoi (Christmas Convoi)
Association: Round Table Germany
Category: Community Service, Public Event, Christmas
Status: Ongoing, Annual basis
Website: Official Pageđź”—

The Weihnachtspäckchenkonvoi is a volunteer-driven Christmas Service Prohejt by Round Table, Ladies’ Circle, Old Tablers, and Tangent Clubs in Germany, that sends gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need in Eastern Europe. Each year, a large convoy of trucks and volunteers delivers the parcels directly to orphanages, schools, and rural communities, bringing joy to children who rarely receive presents.

Weihnachtspäckchenkonvoi is a German compound word.
It literally means:

    • Weihnachts- → Christmas
    • Päckchen → little packages / small parcels
    • Konvoi → convoy

So the full meaning is: “Christmas Small-Parcels Convoy.”

The impulse that got the Christmas parcel convoy (German Weihnachtspäckchenkonvoi, short. WPK) rolling was Round Table Germany’s national service project in 2001/2002: the establishment of the “Günter Rick Training Center” in the Rudolf Walther Foundation’s children’s village. To this day, this center in Timişoara, Romania, offers 130 young people from socially disadvantaged families vocational training who would otherwise have no chance of finding a job.

During our first visits to Romania, we saw the poverty that many regions there still suffer from today. The very warm and personal contact with some local families gave rise to the idea of bringing parcels with us on our next visit and spreading Christmas cheer. And so, in December 2001, the first Christmas parcel convoy set off for Romania and laid the foundation stone: since then, we have been taking the Christmas parcel convoy to the remote and rural regions of Eastern Europe every year, bringing presents and Christmas joy to children in need.

The Günter Rick Training Center in the Rudolf Walther Foundation Children’s Village continues to exist — to date, over 3,500 young people have completed their training there. The center includes a hairdressing salon, a carpentry shop, a tailor’s shop, workshops for motor vehicles and housekeeping, a pastry shop and, since 2004, a bakery.

We have spun off part of our convoy — the transportation of medical supplies — into a new company: Freunde helfen! Konvoi gGmbH. We affectionately call the transports the “summer convoy” and support medical care in our target countries regardless of the season.

In numbers
Year # gifts # vehicles # helpers
2001 100 11 24
2002 1.530 12 22
2003 18.520 13 40
2004 25.140 15 61
2005 43.000 11 69
2006 47.000 12 67
2007 46.000 13 73
2008 47.000 14 70
2009 48.000 14 70
2010 56.000 21 110
2011 61.000 24 120
2012 64.000 26 128
2013 66.000 35 138
2014 78.200 35 149
2015 58.000 25 120
2016 106.371 30 180
2017 132.000 38 237
2018 156.237 45 254
2019 173.161 51 285
2020 141.723 31 Many
2021 156.234 31 Many
2022 132.606 45 230
2023 143.095 51 260
2024 147.232 49 260

How does it work?

The convoy depends on the commitment of all the helpers who make the Christmas parcel convoy possible in the first place. This commitment is reflected in countless small details: we are always on the lookout for new schools and kindergartens throughout Germany to pack Christmas parcels. We contact them personally and distribute flyers. Each individual gift then has to be collected and packed in outer boxes.

People all over Germany lend a hand:

    • Wrapping gifts
    • Coordinating collection points
    • Loading trucks
    • Donating vehicles
    • Providing the teams with food & drink
    • Countless hours of work
    • Preparing customs documents
    • Parcel hospital

Our network of countless friends and helpers is wholeheartedly involved and makes all this possible.

Official Webpage: https://weihnachtspaeckchenkonvoi.de/đź”—
by Fabian Bendun RT Germany 9 SaarbrĂĽcken