Supported projects

BRUSSELS - In March 1922, Belgian philologist Théophile Simar published a study entitled Étude critique sur la formation de la doctrine des races au XVIIIe siècle et son expansion au XIXe siècle. In it, the term ‘racism’ is used in a scientific context for the first time. A hundred years later, the ...

GHENT - On the occasion of International Women's Day on 8 March, three generations of women spend three days together. Twentysomething Cosima Bas and her mother Anna Luyten dig into the life wisdom of the oldest. This is Chantal De Smet (76), a striking figure of the second feminist wave in Belgium ...

In Echo, named after the poem 'Echoes' by Audre Lorde, Neske Beks mercilessly puts her finger on the sore spot. Not only is the white view still dominant in our society, but Black women are doubly disadvantaged: they are not white and they are not men.

BRUSSELS - Last summer, a fire breather suddenly appeared in Brussels. Photographer Kristof Vadino became intrigued by the mysterious entertainer and started following the man.

TIRANA - Over the past 30 years, Albania has evolved at breakneck speed from an extreme communist dictatorship to an unbridled neoliberal democracy. This makes the country an interesting laboratory for contemporary social developments, such as migration, identity construction or gender and the ...

LILONGWE - Malawi is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change. Major floods and extreme drought mean that the harvest fails year after year. Girls are then easy prey for human traffickers.

AUSTIN - Louise Van Assche is a documentary filmmaker who lives and works in Austin, Texas. She was born and raised in Belgium and has Congolese roots. A year ago she moved to Austin, the capital of Texas. There she ended up in the middle of the Black Lives Matter protests. It touched her personally ...

BRUSSELS - This is the first article in a series on homelessness focusing on the Belgian capital city, where homelessness has more than doubled in ten years.

KABUL/KINSHASHA/JUBA - No Olympics this summer. But Elien did seek and feel the Olympic spirit: in Afghan women's football, wheelchair basketball in South Sudan and with nzozo players in Congo. These champions wouldn't have made it to the Olympics anyway, but the Olympic spirit is clearly present.

BRUSSELS - We call them transmigrants. Also known as 'illegals'. Almost a swear word. Caroline van Gastel and Saar Van Eyck shed light on the harsh daily reality of a number of young women in Brussels. They come from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan where the regime oppresses the population and conflicts ...

LAGOS - This series of investigations exposes the consequences of yearlong corruption in the construction and oil sectors on Nigerian life conditions, and the dodgy relationship between oil businessmen and corrupt politicians in the country.

NEW YORK - The documentary 'Pride is Protest' offers an insight into the LGBTQ scene in New York, 50 years after Stonewall. Marieke Dermul and Filip Tielens went to New York for a week in June 2019 during the biggest Pride ever.

BRUSSELS - One-third of the women in Belgium have a pension of less than 750 euros. That's little, but doesn't have to be a problem: if you are happily married, have a long career behind you and can put the money together as a couple. But for a whole group of women, this is not the case. The baby ...

DHAKA - The women in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka are fed up with it: they want to be able to go out on the streets without men bothering them. And so they organise their own transport through the impossibly chaotic, congested traffic: a motor-taxi with a woman at the wheel.

TANGIER - Hirak protests broke out in northern Morocco three years ago. Following the terrible death of a fish seller, the Riffines were crying out for good education, health care, work, fair justice and the fight against corruption. But the regime hit hard, resulting in hundreds of arrests. The ...

BRUSSELS - The five Flemish universities have made considerable progress in the area of gender equality in recent years. Yet at this rate it would take until 2050 before there is gender balance among academic staff. Only slightly more than one in four professors in Flanders is female - while there ...

BRUSSELS - The 'Black Neighbourhoods' project is a result of the writing residence of the Flemish-Dutch organisation deBuren. While the authors were walking through Paris, they were both attracted to Château Rouge, an African neighbourhood immediately behind Montmartre. The positive sides but also ...

EUROPE - They are everywhere. They don't understand. They're good-for-nothings. They're a danger, a plague, a disgrace. In The Indecent, Jan Antonissen goes in search of the people who are being looked at with contempt : the frightened white men and women, the racist vote of the populists, the white ...

BRUSSELS - Flemish women with talent and leadership qualities rarely reach the top. Journalist Tine Maenhout, together with ten inspiring women who hold top positions today, investigates why this is still the case and how things can be improved in the future. 

MOLENBEEK - the Distance Between Us’ takes its starting point in some audio cassettes artist and photographer Jan Locus received from a Moroccan family in Molenbeek a few years ago. Probably going back to the early 1980s, the cassettes contain an oral correspondence between families in Brussels and ...

KAMPALA - Uganda is known as one of the world's worst countries to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). LGBT people risk cell for fourteen years and are victims of violence and discrimination. Ugandan church leaders call to lynch them, political leaders use them as lightning rods for the ...

HARDIN - Sitting Bull personifies the mystery of the Indians. One of the few whites who enjoyed Sitting Bull's confidence was Father Pieter-Jan De Smet, a Jesuit from Dendermonde (Belgium) who came to rescue the Indians. The savage story of these two men is overwhelming. Karl van den Broeck goes in ...

LAMPEDUSA - The current events surrounding the refugee flow cannot be ignored by the media, conversations and our thoughts. At the same time, the reception of refugees is only the first phase. The integration, the second phase, is the common thread through this documentary about the refugees in ...

NOUAKCHOTT - Officially, slavery does no longer exists in Mauritania, a barren desert country in West Africa. However, according to Anti-Slavery International, at least 4% of the Mauritanians are still owned by a master. They are born as slaves and have never known freedom. Not even in their minds.

NEUQUÉN - On the outskirts of Neuquén, at kilometre 7 of the Ruta-7, is the Zanon ceramic tile factory. This is where they do something very special. Ten years ago, Zanon's workers took over their factory. The expropriation was completed in January.

CAPE TOWN - The Cape Flats near Cape Town in South Africa are renowned for their large-scale violence. It is very difficult for young people to escape the violence, drugs and criminality.

PORTO-NOVO - The social and ecological drama of Nigeria's oil industry is a well-known fact in the West. A story that is directly connected but largely unknown, however, is how neighbouring Benin has become dependent on illegal oil smuggle from Nigeria for its fuel supply. One of the most ...

BRUSSELS - In spite of the efforts made by NGOs and the distribution of EU funds, Europe’s main minority is no better off than it was 10 years ago. Anno 2012 the significant proportion of Europe’s 12 million Roma live in deplorable conditions. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. Dutch journalist Hellen ...

CAIRO - Baharak Bashar was thirteen when she fled from Iran to Belgium with her mother. Away from the ayatollah's and their religious narrow-mindedness.

BRUSSELS - Eight underage asylum seekers were followed by Catherine Vuylsteke for one year. The Nadaar collective and three guest photographers each portrayed one of the youngsters.