Supporting Families with Disabled Children

Life isn´t always fair. Parents of children with disabilities can tell a tale.

But laws are fair, aren´t they? Shouldn`t laws help the weak and support the disadvantaged people? In fact, that´s often a tale.

One day at “Der neue Kupferhof” costs approximately € 500 for one child with disabilities to cover all expenses.

In general, the parents do not incur any costs for the care of the guest child, up to the age of 18,thanks to a performance agreement between “Hände für Kinder” and the City of Hamburg. These costs are covered by welfare agencies and care insurance funds, primarily the integration assistance. Most of the other municipalities largely accept this agreement and that is why children from all over Germany can visit “Den neuen Kupferhof”. 

But what happens after these kids turn 18? Children with disabilities aren´t cured only because they are considered to be adult according to the law. The level of nursing care does not decrease for parents of children with disabilities because their children turned 18. But the financial support decreases. 

As a kindness for parents whose children have already been with us and who are now 18 years old and whose circumstances have not changed (who still live at their parent´s), “Der neue Kupferhof” welcomes young adults up to 23 years. 14 days a year “Der neue Kupferhof” is occupied only by young adults and some of their parents. While the grateful parents relax and recharge their batteries for the time afterwards, the young adults enjoy the time among their peers with a daily program adapted to their age. In general, the daily routine is the same, but e.g. they can sleep in longer and stay up longer. Everything is tailored to their interests and age, from activities, music, games to movie night and beverages. 

Depending on demand the young adults can stay up to 14 days. This year we had so many requests, that none of these over 18 guests can stay longer than 8 days. Funding for these “over 18 days” comes entirely from donations. 

The request increases every year, because also children with disabilities grow up and turn 18. It is nice to see our special guests grow up. One the other hand it saddens not to be able to welcome them after reaching majority. Unless you support us with your donation.

Therefor the GlobalGiving donations from February and March will only be used for the “over 18 weeks”.

Thank you for your support and stay healthy.

"Loving staff in all areas, who take notice when a mother is completely exhausted and who bring a piece of happiness back into life through little things (a pot of tea in the morning), long conversations ("you did well!" and "I'll take care of Jonah, enjoy your time!”) "

Family H. with guest child Jonah from Hamburg

“We had a wonderful week here. Lukas was well provided and looked after and had fun with his caregivers and we could take great trips with our daughter or just do nothing. And best of all: sleep through the night! We will be back! Thank you.

"Family R. with guest child Lukas from Sontheim

“First time traveling with grandchild Bennet. If only that goes well... But we were in the New Kupferhof! After a two-week stay, Bennet can eat pureed bread and eat pureed lunchtime meals! With new ideas and renewed happiness for everyday life, we are returning to the new beginning of everyday life.”

Marianne U. with guest child Bennet from Schwerte

“Patty and I had wonderful two weeks at the New Kupferhof. It's been the best weeks for a long time. We are very, very, very grateful that you are there.Thank you, thank you."

Family B. with guest child Patty from Lippstadt

"We would like to thank everyone from the Kupferhof team! The time here was just wonderful! With the help of the caregivers, Magdalena has learned to sleep alone. That's incredible! I was able to relax and strengthen my power. So, we go home regenerated, recovered and happy. We would like to come again!"

Family P. with guest child Magdalena from Hamburg

“The first time at the New Kupferhof, I often just cried with happiness. Simply because you can release a lot here and just take a deep breath. It's important for us to be able to sleep through the night. We have a lot of long nights at home with Leonore and we are just very, very grateful for two weeks of sleep." 

"It's important to accept help, even if it's not always easy. But afterwards you are happy about it."

"After the first time we stayed here, we were just so grateful that we considered fundraising." (And they put their word into practice: Family S. went on a 1000 km bicycle ride - the children each in a cargo bike - from their hometown Karlsruhe to the New Kupferhof in the north of Hamburg. On the two-week tour they collected €15,000 in donations.)

"Going out for a meal together, doing something with friends, that just isn´t possible at home like that. We meanwhile know that Leonore is well taken care of here, so we dare, like yesterday, to just stay out longer."

"The most important thing we take away from here is the booking date for next year.”

Family S. with guest child Leonore from Karlsruhe

On our part and in the name of the parents there is nothing more to say than THANK YOU for your support.

Music is a language that everyone can understand, all people can feel it. People with disabilities are no exception.

In the daily work with our special guests it becomes clear again and again, how positively the kids with their various disabilities react to music. Children with disabilities need spaces for experiences. We often offer our special kids access to musical instruments indoors to stimulate them. The positive effect that music has on our special guests and on all of us could be intensified outdoors, under the open sky.

Therefore we´re planning to install a barrier-free sound garden in our backyard. The musical instruments should find a place in our garden so that everyone has the opportunity to play the instruments.

In nature our special children will then have the opportunity to explore the special sound instruments in a self-determined manner and gain new experiences. Music can be experienced and tried out independently. The kids can hit different notes and experimentation starts.

These are the instruments we plan to set up:

Outdoor Glockenblume Harmony:

Each 'blossom' consists of four bells of decreasing size and increasing pitch. Each 'bell' radiates when struck in a harmonic 3-note major chord.              

Outdoor Mandalaphone:

Stainless steel cushion body with 8 sound tongues, which are coordinated. Every intuitively chosen combination fits together.

Outdoor Congas Trio:

The conga drums (or tumbadoras) are large, narrow, single-headed African drums. These drums really do sound as good as they look, combining great playability with high energy, beautiful tone and distinctive looks.

Outdoor Cavatina:

The tones on the cavatina are arranged as a traditional glockenspiel in the C major scale. In its versatility, it offers a wide range of expressive possibilities, which is suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians.

Outdoor Farbklangröhren-Spielstation:

The five rainbow-colored sound tubes attached to a single stainless-steel post promote creativity, have a great sound and always sound harmonious (pentatonic).

We are confident that this sound garden will bring music in the air and into the hearts of our special guest children.

We´re looking forward to our first open air concert.

Thanks to generous donations Haende fuer Kinder can proudly announce, that we could hire four new employees. 

The three female and one male new team members became part of our big Kupferhof-family immediately. 

Their names are Hildegard, Trudi, Wilma and Gustav-Albert.

Instead of a fixed salary they get board and lodging free. 

We are so happy to be able to offer them a newly renovated guesthouse including a lovely front yard.

Since the last residents moved out, the guesthouse has been vacant for a longer time and some repairs had to be done. Plus, our new members had some special requests, which we were happy to fulfill.

The four of them moved in and got settled very quickly.

Because of their young age they brought a breath of fresh air into the house. Sometimes Gustav-Albert´s youthful temper gets away with him and he gets quite loud, but he´s learning…

It is wonderful to see, how patient and fond of children the four are, and how quickly our special kids take the new employees in their hearts.

We are happy and grateful to have them in our team and looking forward to their promised service in return: daily fresh eggs. Our guests will love to create delicious food with it. 

Warmest regards

Your Kupferhof-family

After lockdown and severe restrictions normal everyday life is slowly returning to the New Kupferhof: All guestrooms for our special guests are booked out. In strict compliance with the hygene rules almost all routines or activities are possible again: walks to the nearby farm, where our special kids -and not only them- love to pet the calves, can made without appointments again, the clowns come to visit regularly again, as well as the “Wolkenmobil” (animal assisted therapy) and riding therapy is possible again also, just to name some.

Watching at the scenery for example in the garden of the New Kupferhof you see the usual hustle and bustle as usual and as intended: our special kids and the caregivers enjoy the good weather by swinging, bathing or fooling around, the parents relax while reading a book and the siblings romp around or just enjoy the leisure time with their parents.

And another thing has changed the last weeks: the volunteering staff, which was literally locked out because of lockdown restrictions, is back due to double vaccination and low Covid-19 incidences. 

I -and I´m sure I´m not the only one-, as one of the volunteers, can hardly express in words how I missed the cooperation with colleagues, the children`s hustle and laughter or the chats with the parents. Working at the New Kupferhof means being part of a big happy family.

Unfortunately, our annual summer party couldn´t take place for the second time in a row because of Covid -19. But it wouldn´t be the New Kupferhof if it hadn´t come up with something instead of a party with hundreds of people on the grounds of the property: the New Kupferhof  Summer Party 2021 as a digital escape room game. With a link you can log in and take a walk through the garden of the New Kupferhof and solve puzzles at any time. Alone and together with others. The link is activated for one year. Interesting information about the New Kupferhof and fun are inevitable.

Every donor during this period will receive this link. For our foreign donors there is a German lesson free of charge, because the game is only in German ;)

Have a nice summer and a lot of fun with the game.