Supported projects

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 real problems.

BRUSSELS - More and more business leaders are positioning themselves as the best CEO a country can wish for. However, experience learns that they rarely succeed.

JOHANNESBURG - Deforestation is a major global problem. At the same time, climate change caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions is threatening not only nature but also humanity. The idea that we can tackle both problems at the same time - by planting trees that store significant amounts of CO2 as they grow - is therefore attractive.

CARACAS - In "Puerta sin Colores", Marianne Cap, together with reporter Roel Nollet, goes to Venezuela. She worked there for a while in a home for boys with a difficult home situation. Four years later, she returns. 

BRUSSELS - Companies, trade unions, interest groups, NGOs, professional lobbyists: they all do their best to influence Belgian politics. How do they do that, and by what means? How far do they go? How do they conquer the 'Rue de la Loi' and win politicians over? These are questions that seldom get an answer. Until now. In 'Lobbying in the Wetstraat' Dominique Soenens looks at how lobbying works.

BRUSSELS - Since 1999, companies are subject to appear before criminal courts for the crimes they commit. How often did this happen? When did it not happen? For what reason? What punishment did the public prosecutor ask for if the case did go to court? And what punishment did the judge pronounce?

BRUSSELS - For the first time in Belgium, political parties were evaluated for their transparency.

CHORQISLOQ - A village in a remote region in Tajikistan, is under strict observation of local police, security services and other agencies. 69 inhabitants have left for Syria in the past three years. Fear seems to reign among village residents and relatives of IS fighters are closely monitored by the security services. ''Nobody knows how they left, not even their own family members'' whispers a primary school teacher. Her colleague adds: "We can not talk about them".

TEHERAN - Sex before marriage is punishable by lashes and incarceration. Adultery even with the death penalty. And that is why promiscuous sexual behavior in Iran is the norm. Two journalists, with the support of the Pascal Decroos Fund, made a captivating undercover report from the underbelly of Tehran.

BAMAKO - In Mali, the expression “aller en aventure” (setting off on an adventure) is widely known: young men are encouraged to spread their wings and leave the country to become a "real" man.

BOGOTA - Raf Custers went to the North of Colombia where he visited El Cerrejon, the site of the largest coal mine in Latin America.

BRUSSELS - Since its establishment in 1850, the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) has been seen as one of the most reliable, but also most mysterious, institutions in the country. After the introduction of the euro, our Belgian notes and coins disappeared, and the NBB seemed like a relic from the past. What is its reason of existence today?

KYIV - Three years after the Maidan revolution Ukraine is still restless. A team of four young multimedia journalists is conducting research on the aftershocks of Maidan for four weeks.

WIERINGERMEER - The Netherlands is one of the world's largest exporters of tomatoes and tomato seeds. Journalist Annemieke Hendriks follows the life of the tomato, from birth to the plate, in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Romania, Hungary and other European countries.

SAN SALVADOR - Strikingly absent in the American political debate: the issue of the Central American refugee crisis. Journalist Arthur Debruyne traveled along the migration route between Mexico and the United States.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The World Cup and the Olympic Games always promise beautiful dreams and opportunities for the inhabitants of the host country. But do those dreams come true? The documentary We Must Be Dreaming closely followed three Brazilians for three years – before, during and after the 2014 World Cup – to see what impact the sporting events had on the lives of ordinary citizens.

DONETSK / ODESSA - At the beginning of this month the conflict in Ukraine came back in the news. With the support of the Pascal Decroos Fund, MO * journalist Pieter Stockmans and photographer Jürgen Augusteyns went to both sides of the front line.

TRIPOLI - The dream of the Arab Spring has splattered. Since the outbreak of popular uprisings in 2011, things have gone from bad to worse in the region. Is the Arab world simply not ready for democracy, or is there more to it?

BRUSSELS - "You have cancer" is a diagnosis with a tremendous psychological impact. But not only for you, but also for your life partner.

FRAY BENTOS - In the last few years money has been made with raw materials. Lots of money. Everyone was after it to win and sell them or to process them in industry. The result: prices skyrocketed. Those who traded in raw materials became rich while sleeping. That credo applied to companies, and governments too believed in it.

ISTANBUL - Whoever wants to understand the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan should look at his great idol: the Islamofascist poet and ideologist Necip Fazil Kisakürek.

PORTO-NOVO - Yovo Bonsoir breaks the clichés about Africa. The white volunteer travelling in the West African country of Benin is the guide. With the help of local colleagues, three young Flemish journalists investigate the true nature of "voluntourism", a popular holiday trend that combines tourism and volunteer work.

KAKUMA - How do you build a home in a place called nowhere? Filmmaker Lieven Corthouts decided to stay in one of the harshest places on earth and make this camp his home.

DRESDEN - During the Second World War just about every Nazi-leader had its own art collection. The hunger for art was enormous. Which paintings were brought from Belgium to Nazi Germany?

GENEVA - The 20th century has been marked by the granting of a wide range of rights to different segments of society. But for some of these rights, we haven't yet found the ideal democratic ways of organising them. Three cases.

KAKUMA - In a remote corner of the sparsely populated northwest of Kenya, the Kakuma Refugee Camp was founded in 1991. The persistent instability in the region caused a society with increasingly urban characteristics to arise.

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 search of the truth behind the myth.

KIEV - The Belgian Koen Carlier has a mission: he wants to bring all Jews in the world to Israel. With the support of Christians for Israel, he travels through Ukraine to help Jews return to Israel. Because only then will the Messiah come, says Koen ...

PALERMO - An investigation into the contemporary Italian mafia in Europe. Or how the mafia made its way to the Low Countries.

BRUSSELS - A completely new view on the Fortis-case and especially on the very closed deliberation procedure in the magistracy. Wim Van den Eyndes book Fortisgate raises serious questions about the functioning of the judiciary in Belgium.