Pascal Brackmann rolls up his sleeves for people with disabilities: “I can't leave them out in the cold, can I?” | Ltd

Pascal Brackmann is a Helpende Handjes ambassador and has his heart in the right place, but he also knows how to get things done. When he heard that his close friends Sven and Tamara couldn't find a school for their 15-year-old daughter, he decided to roll up his sleeves.

“In Antwerp alone, there is no place in special education for 700 children with disabilities,” says Pascal. “You can't leave them out in the cold, right? Imagine losing your job and being put on a waiting list for unemployment benefits because there's no money… the country would be turned upside down. Rightly so. But children with disabilities end up on a waiting list for care and education for years.” .

And so Pascal contacted an old acquaintance. “Education Minister Ben Waites and I went to the same school and did a theater show together,” says Pascal. We sat with him and he is aware of the problems, but unfortunately there are no ready-made solutions.”

With Pascal as their ambassador, Sven and Tamara began looking for a solution themselves: finding and funding a site where they could provide education to people with a physical or mental disability. “We hit a wall,” Tamara says. “Parents are not allowed to organize education themselves, and our numerous conversations with comprehensive educational organizations have yielded no results. But the comprehensive day activity center must be successful.

During this years-long search, they noticed an empty church in Boom. Soon they want to turn it into a large baking workshop and space where people with disabilities can create. To realize this and other projects, money is needed – more than a million euros. So they have been baking cookies for children with disabilities with their organization Helping Hands for three years. Anyone who wants to support can do so by purchasing cookies or making a donation via website.

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