Supported projects

NIVELLES - State police commander Léon François starts using questionable investigative methods in the fight against drug traffickers in the 1970s, without legal regulation. Who are the gangsters and who is the police? The boundaries blur. Top cops and politicians, ex-premier Vanden Boeynants in the lead, watch and do not intervene. François is convicted, but the case never really gets cleared up. A lot of serious crimes are never solved.

HSINCHU - Microchips are at the heart of our digital world. Without them, our smartphones and laptops do not work, our cars fall silent and the internet crashes. So it comes as no surprise that car factories are halting production due to a global chip shortage, China and the US are fighting a trade war over chips, and the European Union is investing billions in the chip industry.

BRUSSELS - Though they are right under our feet, soils do not receive much attention. Yet the many free services they provide for us are truly priceless, and they are under pressure. What can we do to prevent all this, and to repair damaged soils, Tim Vernimmen asked eight soil scientists in four countries. In response, they told him about all the things healthy soils can do for us - our food and water needs, our buildings, our health, and the climate - inspiring an article for the popular science magazine EOS that became a plea to stop ignoring the soil. 

ANKARA - One image that will undoubtedly mark 2021 is that of the tens of thousands of desperate Afghans drumming outside the closed gates of Kabul airport to get away. The borders were sealed tight, yet hundreds of thousands of Afghans managed to flee. A number of them reached Turkey in the hope of being able to ask for international protection there. An illusion, as it turns out. After the fall of Kabul, Turkey, with the help of Europe, also sealed its borders and stopped registering Afghan asylum seekers. And the waiting lists for resettlement to Europe are endless, so there is little relief to be expected there either.

BRUSSELS - Climate change is causing extremes in weather, such as more frequent heat waves, periods of drought and intense rainfall. Our farmers notice the consequences of the climate crisis on their fields, in fluctuating yields and failing crops.

ANTWERPEN - In 2017, Francis Njotea is rushed to hospital. He is in a coma for a week. When he wakes up, confused, he shares a secret with his son Raf. That contrary to what his children and ex-wife have always thought, he is not 63 but 73 years old. He later dismisses his claim as a hallucination. Francis’ children and ex-wife have no idea if what he said is true or not. It shows how little they know about his life story, a story that has been shrouded in mystery for as long as they can remember.

BRUSSELS - Overcrowding, striking staff, dilapidated infrastructure... With regularity our prisons are in the news in a way that leaves little to the imagination. What is less well known is that each prison has a Supervisory Committee that watches over the welfare of the inmates. About 450 volunteers, including doctors and lawyers, visit the prisons and report on the state of affairs. Complaints Committees were also established at the end of 2020: they are recognised as administrative tribunals within the prison walls.

BRUSSELS - Journalists at Knack, LeVif and RTBF have joined forces to investigate the peculiar financial management of the non-profit organisation Poverello. They greedily buy real estate that often remains empty. The organisation appears to be very rich, but hardly ever uses its money for working with the poor.

BRUSSELS - Joy and intimacy between family members and friends was an obvious thing before the corona crisis, but became a scarce commodity during it. Journalist Arkasha Keysers and photographer Aurélie Geurts captured the coming together of family and friends as soon as it was allowed again.

EL ZONTE - El Salvador is the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as its official currency: "One thing is certain: it is here to stay."

VINDELN/LO MANTHANG/OLD CROW - Through the project Indigenous People Today, we investigate the effects of climate change on indigenous peoples, their ways of life and unique cultures. These are indigenous peoples in the northern hemisphere, living in arctic or high-altitude areas.

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS - 70 to 90 per cent of patients with unexplained symptoms are women. Why do female patients receive a (correct) diagnosis less often? What is the impact of this on their lives? How can this be done differently and better in the future? In the podcast Geen kleine man (No little man), AudioCollectief SCHIK and journalist Sofie Peeters take a closer look at this issue.

ANTWERPEN - After images of her were non-stop circulating online, 13-year-old Destiny took her own life. For her, it was the only way out of all the judgements and hurtful comments. In a physical murder, the killer is visible. But who is to blame when everyone online has participated in the murder of your child?

BRUSSELS - 1 in 10 Belgians uses heavy painkillers such as oxycodone, tramadol and fentanyl. Effective painkillers, but with a high addiction risk: about 8% of everyone who comes into contact with opioid painkillers becomes dependent on them. The longer you use, the higher the risk. Research journalists Laura Dhaese and Marie Borremans focus on the patient's perspective: how do you get rid of an addiction to painkillers and what kind of care can you get?

STEPANAKERT - Nearly 30 years after Nagorno-Karabakh's declaration of independence, the region's simmering conflicts have flared up again. Nagorno-Karabakh is a country that does not officially exist. Still, it is fought over hard. Journalists Roel Nollet and Marijn Sillis travel to the Southern Caucasus, an ancient crossroads of cultures where the unrecognized states are a stone's throw from each other. Through the rugged Armenian mountains, they travel hundreds of kilometers along the border with Azerbaijan to record the stories of the people at the foot of the Caucasus.

MELILLA - The Spanish enclave of Melilla, geographically part of Africa, politically part of the European Union, is located on Morocco's northern coast. The border between the continents here consists of a triple fence with countless pits and guard posts.

MADRID - In 2010, VRT correspondent Sven Tuytens moved from Brussels to Madrid. Based on his experiences, he tries to lay bare a piece of Spain's soul.

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.

BUDAPEST - There she is, the granddaughter, in Budapest in front of her grandfather, who died suddenly five days ago. None of his three daughters, who all live in Flanders, travelled to Hungary for the funeral. From one moment to the next, the granddaughter, who loved her grandfather dearly, steps in to take charge.

MOSUL - Many residents of Mosul, Iraq's second city, view the power seized by Shiite militias in the city as a new occupation. Even if the terror group ISIS could be chased away militarily, they do not know how they will ever get rid of the militias that have corruptly infiltrated every aspect of life.

GHENT - WHY WE FIGHT? is a cinematographic film that tries to understand the violence around us, but also in ourselves, in order to better cope with today's world.

GHENT - In the autumn of 2020, in the midst of a severe lockdown, dozens of Ghent-based organisations joined forces to map out homelessness and precarious housing situations.

What is the involvement of Belgian jihadists in the genocide that IS carried out against the Jezidi community? Now that the Belgian parliament has acknowledged the genocide, Brenda Stoter Boscolo and Bruno Struys went to Iraqi Kurdistan with that question in mind. They talked to official sources, but above all had hours of interviews with the Yezidis themselves.

AMSTERDAM - From the age of twelve until the age of twenty-two, Erwin Roebroeks was in the grip of a compulsive disorder. He showered eight hours a day, drank soapsuds while wearing surgical gowns, and cut open his skin to be able to clean the inside. At first, the medical world wrote him off. Roebroeks will never get rid of his severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd).

KABUL - Even after the anniversary of 9/11, one question remains unanswered: how did Osama bin Laden manage to carry out that murderous raid against the most powerful country in the world? Exceptional testimonies from the heart of the al-Qaeda terrorist movement provide an answer.

BUJUMBURA - After sixty years, Ludo De Witte opens up about a murder that set Burundi on the road to internal division, ethnic tension and mass killings.

ANTALYA - Two shy young men start to work in an all-inclusive hotel. A new, absurd world opens up to them. Colourful swimsuits, an abundance of food and the management’s demands ensure they will never be the same again.

BRUSSELS - The thirty glorious years after the Second World War, that manic period of reconstruction and economic boom, have been decisive for the Belgium of today. The whole country was turned upside down. New jobs, habits and ideas replaced the old ones. At the end of those triumphant decades, Belgians were richer, freer and better educated than ever before.

RONSE - Is the voice of the children still heard? For some time now, there has been no real motivation to invest in youth. That results in a salvo of cries for help from youth councils and youth movements. Robbe Vandegehuchte investigates in Knack the local youth infrastructure through various cases in Ronse.

BEIRUT - The report 'Draining the well of young dreams' portrays these young adults alongside urban landscapes that reflect the current situation in Beirut.