Supported projects

About one third of the natural vegetation on the island of Borneo, one of the most biodiverse places in the world, was lost in the past thirty years. Through the decades, scientists and conservationists working on the island have grown a thick skin, and came to realize that reserves will not suffice to save the rainforest.

School uniforms are common in elementary and middle schools in many countries. They symbolize class equality, quality, and structure. Photographer Annie van Gemert visited Belgium, where pupils still wear uniforms in many schools. From 2009 to 2013 she created probing (group) portraits of boys and girls in school uniforms. These photos led to a new publication, School Uniforms: Education in Flanders.

Zelfa Madhloum went to Iraq to find Iraqis returning to their country after having emigrated. What is more, it was her first visit to her country of origin. Against everyone's advice, she decided to follow her destiny in Iraq. She immerses herself in the new, shocking world, gets to know other people her age and meets her family for the first time.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - They are omnipresent in the West Bank and they look at you from walls, in bus shelters and on lampposts: the Palestinian martyrs. But what is the context of those decayed Palestinian martyr posters?

It's highly unusual. In October 2012, after years of friendly relations, Margot Vanderstraeten was able to get access to a small group of Antwerp modern-orthodox Jews who started a new life in New York – and don't want to leave. "I truly feel at home here. I can be truly Jewish here, too. And that is something that has never really been possible in Antwerp."

Baharak Bashar was thirteen when she fled from Iran to Belgium with her mother. Away from the ayatollah's and their religious narrow-mindedness. Towards the Free West. But half a life later, she goes the other way. Why is she, the militant freethinker, suddenly so interested in the Koran? And what about that young Syrian's statement that in democracies you can talk freely but no one listens?

MOZAMBIQUE - Much to his surprise, the film journalist and historian Guido Convents was told by Portuguese journalists in 2006 that there was and is no film culture or film production of any significance in Mozambique. Also in the Belgian film world, no one seemed to have an idea of what should be understood by film in Mozambique.

US/CANADA -There are few issues that have been as socially sensitive as immigration in recent years. At the same time, the policy on migration goes in all directions. While European countries mainly want to make access more difficult for newcomers and expel more people, the European Commission is actively attracting immigrants with the new Blue Card system, a work permit for non-Europeans valid throughout the Union.

USA - The colours of America provides an overview of American diversity in all of its forms. The multicultural society is not all sunshine and roses, but a work in progress, with beautiful and ugly sides, successes and failures.

Journalists Majd Khalifeh and Pieter Stockmans, and photographer Xander Stockmans travel across North Africa and the Middle East for 5 months in search of dreams of freedom and happiness of ordinary people, workers, doctors, activists, young people, imams, priests, professors, trade union leaders, journalists, politicians,... They let the people behind the revolutions speak and share their dreams with Europe.