zuFrieden & AkzepTanz — Padma Stiftung für Kinder

New questions of our society

Why now?

Four findings that will not let us go — and to which we seek answers together:

Body

We feel ourselves less. Standing upright, looking each other in the eye, breathing, eating well — the body as a compass is getting lost.

Success

Likes instead of achievement. Manipulated dopamine, up to 70 hours online per week — and without real experiences of success, confidence withers.

Role models

Division, conflict, war. Problems get patched up, not solved. Children grow up without seeing life done well.

Community

Let's sing and dance! Yet the dance floor is almost empty. Spaces with intention are missing: practising dialogue, encounters without camps.

Our idea

It takes more than child and youth welfare — it also takes adult education. Because children need adults who model how problem-solving, community and joy succeed. That is why we create offerings that help us adults become role models again.

zuFrieden

Resources for making peace with yourself and finding your own vision.

Learn more →

AkzepTanz

Where people sing and dance, settle down: freedom of body and mind in community.

Learn more →

Pillar 1

zuFrieden — at peace with yourself

Being zuFrieden does not mean everything is perfect.

It means: I know myself. I accept my Now — as the intersection of past and future, inner world and outer world. And I may believe that something good will emerge from this Now. That is why we capitalise the F: zuFrieden is the peace (Frieden) you make with yourself.

Knowledge of the world

What does humanity know about living well? Nourishing and caring for the body, relationships, home, effective organisations.

Your own patterns

Knowing your thoughts, feelings, patterns and beliefs — and the courage to make the unconscious visible.

Vision & intention

Developing a vision and letting it carry you; intuition as a source of motivation and energy.

Action

Doing instead of just visualising: small changes, better habits, good dialogue, dance, creativity.

Project 23: Together, over 23 days, we explore how to make our lives, our life as a group and perhaps even the world a little better.

Help build zuFrieden

We are building the zuFrieden resources right now — online and offline. You write, film, design, facilitate, or have your own experience with inner work? Then help out: with exercises and prompts for the 23 days, with video and audio, with group formats.

Write to us — we will develop it together

Pillar 2

AkzepTanz — Clear head. Free body. Open space.

Saving the world one dancefloor at a time.

The body is our shell and our anchor. Where people sing and dance, settle down: we experience the freedom of body and mind in community — a space for arriving, letting go and feeling again. Not performance, but presence. Encounter with acceptance and intention: every being equal in dignity, moving together.

Dance with us — from the start

We are building the AkzepTanz space right now. We are looking for dancers and movement people, musicians and DJs, people who hold spaces — and everyone keen to shape the format.

Count me in

The most important page

Get involved

This page is not a donation form. It is an invitation.

The Padma Foundation is being reimagined — and that only works together. We are not looking for spectators, but co-creators. What you can bring:

🎨

Creativity

Writing, video, design, music, social media — help make zuFrieden and AkzepTanz tangible.

🤝

Presence & heart

Organise and pitch in at our encounter spaces and events — as host, facilitator or helping hand.

🧭

Experience

Education, psychology, coaching, organisational development — co-develop the content.

Just tell us what appeals to you — informally, no application needed. We will reply personally.

Our foundation

Projects & impact

The new direction stands on a foundation: many years of concrete project work for children — internationally and in the Heilbronn region. Since 2003, with around €480,000 in funding.

Our milestones since 2003

Denjong Pema Choeling AcademySikkim, Indien
ABIX adventure playground HasenberglMunich, Germany
Street work MunichMunich, Germany
AmilalInner Mongolia, China
Groupe Scolaire Atta OudieOuagadougou, Burkina Faso
Help for CambodiaCambodia
Danakosha AidTibet, China
Walmberg nature learningReit im Winkl, Germany
Active project with BMW & Red CrossWolfratshausen, Germany
Project "11 Friends" with Diakonisches WerkHeilbronn, Germany
Theatre education at KinderArcheHeilbronn, Germany
Experience projects at Susanne Finkbeiner SchoolHeilbronn, Germany

Moments from more than 20 years

Schools, computer rooms, teacher training, adventures in nature — from Asia and Africa to Heilbronn. This history carries us, and we take its good spirit with us into the new chapter.

Handmade

Words you can touch

These words — Zukunft (future), Liebe (love), Bildung (education) — were laid out in grains of rice for our first campaigns, by hand, grain by grain. They still remind us what this is about: creating things with your own hands instead of just scrolling. At our next gathering we will lay new words. Which one would you lay?

Who we are

About us

The Padma Stiftung für Kinder is a non-profit foundation, established in Munich in 2003. We are administered by the Kinderfonds Stiftungszentrum at Haus des Stiftens, Munich. Funding to date: around €480,000.

Today we are small — and that is precisely our strength: whoever joins now shapes things from the ground up.

Our perspective: we want to grow and extend our statutory purposes from child and youth welfare to adult education and networking. Because children need adults who model how problem-solving, community and joy succeed.

Help shape the new chapter