Disability Rights Germany Project #29701

Supporting Families with Disabled Children

by Hande fur Kinder e. V.

Project Report | Dec 6, 2025
Good Bye Year 2025

By Andrea Fleischmann | Project Leader

Again, an eventful year tend to an end.

A year with wonderful new guest children and beloved guest children who have already visited us several times.

We want to say thank you to all the guest parents who had the courage and confidence to entrust their children to our professional care.

We know the first step, letting go of the child who has very special needs and whom you otherwise care for 24/7, is very difficult. That is absolutely understandable and reasonable.

It is all the more wonderful to see that both the visiting children and their parents and siblings feel comfortable at “der Neue Kupferhof” and can benefit from their stay.

These are some reactions of guest parents after their stay at “der Neue Kupferhof”:

“Here, our son spent his first nights without Mom and Dad by his side – a little miracle vor us! The long drive from Lake Chiemsee was well worth it…”

Family t. from Bavaria

“We´ve had a wonderfully relaxing week and look back on these energizing days with immense gratitude. We`ll draw strength from them for a long time to come!”

Family K. from North Rhine-Westphalia

“The weeks I spent at “der Neue Kupferhof” were always a ray of hope and a source of strength during difficult years of my life. This time ,again, we feel incredibly comfortable, so much care and warmth are simply wonderful!”

Guest mother F. from Rhineland Palatinate

“This place has something magical and we enjoyed every single day. Whether in the company of other parents or just the two of us, we knew our son was in the best possible hands.”

Family S. from North Rhine-Westphalia

“Thank you so much for a whole week of freedom! The feeling of knowing our child was in best hands while we could, exceptional, live in the moment, was simply wonderful.”

Family N. from Brandenburg

“We had no idea what to expect and are returning home filled with gratitude, relaxation, and a warm feeling in our hearts, so happy to know that such a supportive and positive place like “der Neue Kuperhof” exists.”

Family S. from Brandenburg

“Thank you for the wonderful two weeks: time to recharge, sleep in, enjoy the food (in peace and quiet), spend quality time with the grandparents, have lovely conversations and so much more.”

Family T. from Hamburg

“This was our second time here, and we are once again absolutely thrilled. Everything is just perfect for an ideal getaway and a perfect “recharging week”.”

Family R. from Bavaria

“How incredibly wonderful it was to be at yours again – a thousand thanks for the loving care, the fantastic offerings, and the lovely encounters.”

Family S. from Hamburg

To ensure that our guest children feel comfortable and have fun, we are constantly searching or and organizing suitable offers in the areas of therapy and leisure:

Thanks to monetary donations we were able to ensure that our guest children can regularly use the gymnasium of SC Poppenbüttel (a nearby sports club). So we can offer especially children with a high urge to move even more and special movement and therapy options. Both kids and the caregivers have a lot of fun with the activities in the gym.

Another highlight is always the various trips we take with the guest children. For examble, we went to Timmendorfer Strand on the Baltic Sea with some guest children. Flying kites, romping around, building sandcastles, collecting shells and stones made the timepass much too quickly, and everyone had to turn to “Der Neue Kupferhof” tired but happy.

In 2026 the “Haende fuer Kinder” team will continue to use new ideas, competence and empathy to ensure that visiting children, parents and siblings return home strengthened after their stay at “der Neue Kupferhof”.

The entire team wishes you all a peaceful Christmas season and a happy and healthy New Year.

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Aug 4, 2025
The Making of Summer Festival

By Andrea Fleischmann | Project Leader

Organizational Planning

Our annual summer festival is the absolute highlight of the “Kupferhof” year. We have already reported previously on the summer festival, which has a different theme every year.

This time we like to tell you about the preparations before the festival: As soon as the new motto is decided, which is approximately in January, the organizational team meets for the first time. Which sponsors, companies, activities, artists, decoration etc. fit the motto. We always want to offer a platform for other initiatives or groups and not lose sight of the inclusive character. First decisions are made. From now on the team meets every two weeks.

Since things get a bit hectic at “Der Neue Kupferhof” around the time of the summer festival, the family office carefully selects the guests who will be staying during the week of the summer festival.

Also happening in January or February the caretaker team, in consultation with the organization team, orders tables and party tents for the expected 2500 visitors. In April and May, space planning will take place, discussions will be held on how the Social Day helpers can be deployed, tours and preliminary talks will be held with stage builders and actors on site. The caretaker team also prepares the site and takes care of coordinating deliveries and setting up tables, benches, tents and stages, as well as technical equipment.

Since normal operations continue, the summer festival represents an extreme double burden for the kitchen. In addition to preparing four meals a day for our guest children and their parents, the kitchen team takes care of the delivery and refrigeration of drinks, sausages (approximately 700) and cakes (approximately 50-60). They also manage the Currywurst stand, the coffee and cake stand, and the stocking of all other food and beverage stands. 80 to 100 3l pots of coffee are brewed on this day. All this is only possible thanks to many volunteers.

In January / February the tombola team starts collecting donations for the tombola. Starting in April, the tombola team will sort the donations already received and any further donations in kind and will record each individual donation in lists. In the end, there are up to 1000 prizes for children and adults each. Right before the festival each donation is labelled with a winning number according to the lists.

The educational team plans the children's program for our guest children and visiting children according to the motto and safety.

The care team ensures that our guest children experience as little of the hustle and bustle as possible and can enjoy their stay, with the summer festival as the highlight.

What follows is an absolutely successful summer festival.

At this point we would like to thank all volunteers and sponsors. Without your tremendous help our beloved summer festival wouldn´t be possible.

Well, after the summer festival comes the summer festival.

The next date has already been set: June 21, 2026.

We'll be prepared.

We wish you a nice summer and sunshine in your heart.

Set Up Stage and Tents

Set Up Tombola

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Mar 17, 2025
Hande fur Kinder: The forest is calling

By Andrea Fleischmann | Author

The Forest is calling

The “Neue Kupferhof” has been providing a short-term home for severely and multiply disabled children and their families for 12 years now.

It was high time to renovate the children's floor with the rooms for our special guest children. Thanks to generous donations, we have already been able to do a lot:
As before, the rooms are once again equipped with
- video cameras and audio baby-monitors (to monitor the children when they are alone in the room. This is particularly important if the children suffer from epilepsy or other seizures, for example).
- oxygen connection (If the children need oxygen support.)
- nursing beds (The different equipment of the beds is adapted to the needs of the guest children and the staff).
The very spacious bathrooms have barrier-free showers and height-adjustable washbasins.
The entire children's floor has been equipped with a new lighting and soundproofing concept:
The lighting system adapts to the external times of day and year. Morning, midday, evening and night light can be adjusted indoors according to the time of year. In addition, the light switches on very slowly in the morning and switches off again slowly in the evening, which is particularly beneficial for light-sensitive epileptics.
To promote the release of the sleep hormone melatonin, blue light is avoided in the evening. (The situation is different in the staff and control rooms: blue light prevails here at night to counteract tiredness).
The children's floor has been visually adapted to the forest theme:
The new sound absorbing elements are disguised as trees, forest animals and clouds. They can be found in all the children's rooms, in the hallway and in the play corner.
The new locking system and the climbing protection to the staircase have been made even safer for children and also adapted to the forest theme.
Only the playroom still has the old look. We would also like to adapt this to the forest and meadow concept, replace some of the play equipment (such as the ball pool and swings) and also equip it with the new light and sound insulation concept.
We therefore continue to hope for your support and thank you in advance.

We wish you a wonderful springtime.

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