About Brasov County
FAST is located in the town of Sacele, outside the city of Brasov in southeastern Transylvania. Situated in the mountains that rise out of the central Prahova valley leading from Bucharest, Brasov was a medieval Saxon settlement (and the German influence on the city was such that there is still a German school there) and is a mere 30 minutes from Bran Castle � the setting for Dracula, despite the fact that the real Bran Castle was never inhabited by Vlad Tepes, the figure Dracula was based on.
Sacele is home to one of the highest concentrations of Rroma people in Romania; as many as 10,000 Rroma live in or on the outskirts of this city of 30,000. Additionally, Sacele is surrounded by villages which have their own high concentrations of Rroma: Tarlungeni, Budila, and Zizin in particular have large Rroma settlements. Sacele is also home to a large Hungarian population; Transylvania was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and large Hungarian populations inhabit many of its cities.
FAST works at our new Ziurel Centre, in Sacele, and in the communities of Garcin (a Rroma area of Sacele), Tarlungeni, Budila, and Zizin, to help the Rroma people of these communities acquire the tools they need to gain better access to the Romanian society at large around them.
