History

In 2003, the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre was erected in Northern Uganda by Sponsoring Children Uganda with support from the Service "Peace Building" of the Belgian government (Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation). Guided by Els De Temmerman, this rehabilitation centre organized the support and reception of former child soldiers abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

During this period, the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre documented a lot of highly valuable and rich information regarding (former) child soldiers in Northern Uganda, and the setting up of rehabilitation and reintegration processes for this group. 

In order to prevent the loss of this richness of information on Northern Ugandan (former) child soldiers and the local expertise regarding reception and support of these children when the rehabilitation centre was closed down, Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations (CCVS) was created in September 2008 with support of the Service Peace Building of the Belgian government. 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 Social Work & Social Pedagogy and Department of Special Needs Education) and the KU Leuven (Research group Education, Culture, and Society).

On May 20th, 2009, CCVS was officially opened, in the presence of Mr. Karel De Gucht, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Els De Temmerman, journalist and founder and driving force of Sponsoring Children Uganda and the Rachele Rehabilitation Centre, Mr. Jef Vermassen, lawyer and fervent defender of the child soldiering problem, especially in Northern Uganda, 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 and CCVS through its financial support.