Judith Declercq

Judith Declercq (Wielsbeke, Belgium, July 30, 1918 - Waregem, Belgium, March 3, 2007) was the Provincial President of the Belgian National Child Welfare organisation. She was also a teacher and one of the founders at 'Hoger Instituut voor Verpleegkunde' at Kortrijk.
She had finished her medical education and had even started teaching when the second world war began and the Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940. During the invasion, followed by the German occupation and later also during the liberation of Belgium in 1944 she has worked at field hospitals and regular hospitals. After the war she continued to work as the Head of a maternity in Kortrijk. She has been one of the very first teachers at the Nurse Training School 'Maria Middelares' that would later become 'Hoger Instituut voor Verpleegkunde' at Kortrijk in Belgium. She has also become the provincial president of the Belgian National Child Welfare organisation (Dutch : Nationaal Werk voor Kinderwelzijn), which is nowadays called ‘Kind en Gezin’ in the Flemish area of Belgium and ‘Office de la naissance et de l'enfance’ in the Wallonia part of Belgium. The Belgian National Child Welfare organisation was established just after the first world war as a consequence of the Belgian National League for the Protection of the Child agreement of 1904.
Judith Declercq is a sister of Ernestine Declercq (Wielsbeke 1915 - Anzegem 2011), school teacher Rachel Declercq and Michel Achiel Renatus Declercq (Wielsbeke 1906 - Deerlijk 1963) who is the grandfather of Nico F. Declercq and Françoise Vanhecke. She was married to Robert Courtens, the former director of the Free Technical Institute (Dutch : Vrij Technisch Instituut) at Waregem.

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