WHITE-YELLOW CROSS FLEMISH BRABANT 76 YEARS
The Wit-Gele Kruis has been around for 76 years this year as a fixed value in primary health care. Year after year we have developed into a professional organization with a lot of expertise, which focuses on the nursing care of the patient.
HISTORY
In our province, the first Wit-Gele Kruis department was founded in Leuven just before WWII. However, home nursing is much older. For example, in the chronicles of Leuven we read that as early as the 15th century the ‘Black Sisters’ cared for the sick at home, a task that was also performed by the ‘White Hoods’ from 1866 to 1969!
The Wit-Gele Kruis started in Ghent . in 1936Doctor van de Putte, chairman of the Guild of Saint Luke, proposed ‘a design for social medical work’. He found that despite their illness, many patients were not nursed in hospital but at home. He asked if the Guild of Saint Luke could not set up a work that could provide assistance to patients at home.
Inspired by the Netherlands, the statutes of this ‘new work’ were published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 13 November 1937. Mainly thanks to the propaganda work of the provost – ZEH Bogaerts SJ – the initiative quickly expanded and on the eve of WWII the Wit- Gele Kruis is active in ten cities and municipalities: Bruges, Kortrijk, Blankenberg, Roeselare, Ghent, Overmere, Leuven, Mechelen, Schoten, ‘s Gravenwezel, Namur and Jambes.
The establishment of the White Yellow Cross was completed on June 19, 1939 with the establishment of the ‘National Federation Het Wit-Gele Kruis, Catholic Association for Health and Nursing and with a cooperation agreement with the Landsbond der Christelijk Mutualiteiten and the Women’s Guilds, and something later also with the Boerinnenbond.
The Leuven Wit-Gele Kruis department was founded in 1938 by Juffrouw Jeanne Ausloos and Prof. G. Vander Schueren. Juffrouw Ausloos was one of the true pioneers and has led the Leuven department for more than a quarter of a century. It was not until much later, in 1967, that the provincial non-profit organization Wit-Gele Kruis Brabant was founded. And about 30 years later in 1998, the division of Brabant takes place, and the Wit-Gele Kruis Vlaams-Brabant is founded.