VBJK | Ghent (Belgium) - Ankie Vandekerckhove
Staff
Ankie Vandekerckhove
Ankie is currently involved in a project in Brussels to realize the social function in ECEC. In this project some 80 childcare centres get support to lower thresholds for vulnerable families (due to poverty, migration, problematic family situation...) and to adapt their working methods to the context of increasing diversity in the city.
She is representing VBJK in the European DECET network, in which she is a Board member and also represents VBJK in Eurochild. Together with Jan Peeters and Michel Vandenbroeck, she is working on a project of the Kind Baudoin Foundation, the Transatlantic Forum on Inclusive Early Years. In this project 6 high level international meetings are organized, in Europe and the US, on issues dealing with ECEC in the context of migration and poverty. VBJK is the partner on the European side while the Migration Policy Institute is the US partner.
From 1998 until 2009, Ankie was the first Flemish Commissioner for Children's Rights. In this function, she did a lot of advocacy on children's rights, both in Belgium and internationally (e.g. the Children's Special session, UN, New York, may 2002), specialized in ombudswork with and for children and was actively involved in the establishment of the European Forum of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC).
Ankie is still partly working as an independent consultant on children's rights and has done work for the Council of Europe (e.g. Drafting the Guidelines on Child Friendly Justice, as adopted), the EU (e.g. Children's rights forum) and Unicef (e.g. coaching session with the staff of the Serbian Commissioner on Equality).
From 1991-1998, she also worked for Child & Family, a Flemish governmental agency with responsibility for young children and families in Flanders. She was also involved in the Children's Rights Centre of the Ghent University.