History
In 2003, the organisation Sponsoring Children Uganda erected, with support of the Service "Peace Building" (Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation), the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre in Northern Uganda. Guided by Mme Els Els De Temmerman, this rehabilitation centre realised for years the support and reception of former child soldiers, abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda.
During this period, the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre documented a lot of highly valuable and rich information regarding (former) child soldiers in Northern Uganda and regarding the setting up of rehabilitation and reintegration processes of this group.
In order to prevent the loss of this richness of information about Northern Ugandan (former) child soldiers and the local expertise regarding reception and support of these children when the project was closed down, a interuniversity centre, the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations, was created in September 2008, with support of the Service Peace Building. This centre is a unique collaboration between three Belgian universities, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Department of Clinical and Life Span Psychology), Ghent University (Department of Orthopedagogics) and the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) (Research group 'Education, Culture, and Society').
On May 20th, 2009, the Centre was officially opened, in the presence of Mr. Karel De Gucht, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mme. Els De Temmerman, journalist and founder and driving force of the organisation 'Sponsoring Children Uganda' and the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre, Mr. Jef Vermassen, lawyer and fervent defender of the child soldiering problem, especially in Northern Ugand, and Mr. Luc Teirlinck, Ambassador and then head of the Service Peace Building (FPS Buitenlandse Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation), who made possible the erection of the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre ànd the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations through its financial support.
Notwithstanding its recent creation, the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations already has built out a series of different research projects, sensitization activities and support projects in different countries and continents.
