BMAB Children's and Youth Camp 2023

After a three-year forced break, Europe's largest youth camp for children and young people with disabilities is reopening.

"If we really want to make a difference, we need enthusiasm above all." (Dalai Lama)

For children and young people, a week of pure fun and action is offered: the Federal Association for People with Arm or Leg Amputation e.V. (BMAB) is hosting the 6th Youth Camp for Children and Adolescents with Amputations and Limb Deformities from 29.7.-6.8.2023 under the patronage of Dr. Eckhart von Hirschhausen.

Participants can expect an exciting week ... with prosthesis in the high ropes course and canoeing, swimming, horseback riding, archery, handicap diving with oxygen bottle in the Mellendorf fun pool, a sports day with well-known handicap athletes and much more. The sports day will take place on the sports grounds of the IGS Wedemark, Am Roye-Platz in Mellendorf.

With this event, which is unique in Europe, the Federal Association for People with Arm or Leg Amputations (BMAB) offers affected children between the ages of 8 and 17 the opportunity not only to meet peers from all over Germany who have a similar handicap, but also the chance to strengthen their self-confidence with regard to their own disability. In this way, they could be themselves for nine days without a care in the world, exploring their limits and exchanging ideas with each other.

Don't be disabled for a week!

In addition, the direct involvement of medical supply stores, orthopaedics and prosthetics companies as well as numerous associations and initiatives enables the children to awaken their own awareness of the possibilities offered by modern and perfectly adapted aids. Comprehensive support was provided by a qualified team of caregivers, many of whom are also amputees and prosthesis wearers. Some counsellors have been participants in the youth camp themselves in previous years and thus serve the adolescents as confidants and positive role models at the same time. Dedicated physiotherapists and orthopaedic technicians are also part of the support staff, so that the right contact person is available for all eventualities, from homesickness attacks to defective prostheses.

In order to put together an exciting and varied program for the eight days of the camp again this year, the organizing team planned for months and "knocked on doors" countless times to collect the necessary funds. The base of the youth camp is the "Jugend-, Gäste- und Seminarhaus in Gailhof (JuGS)", Am Jugendheim 7, 30900 Wedemark/GT Gailhof.

The Federal Association of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

The association advocates for the improvement of prosthetic care for people with arm or leg amputations, and with its lobbying work it sustainably supports the improvement of occupational and social rehabilitation after amputations of the quality of life of people with arm or leg amputations.

The impetus for this event is the ACA, Amputee Coalition of America, which has been successfully organizing the "Paddy Rossbach Youth Camp" for years. That's how this great idea came to Germany and in the summer of 2015 the first German youth camp was successfully organised. The BMAB cordially invites 70 children and young people between the ages of 10 and 17 to discover exciting activities with lots of fun and joy in the community under professional supervision.

SOURCE Photos: BMAB Bundesverband