Supported projects

ZURICH/ALTMULTHAL - Fossils of dinosaurs are the new Picassos and Van Goghs. Millions are often given for precious skeletons. Such is the case for Trinity, the skeleton of a T. rex that Antwerp entrepreneur Fernand Huts bought a year and a half ago.

Low Countries - In Flanders, we now speak Dutch. But that was not always the case. Less than a century ago, most people spoke their local dialect and the upper social class spoke Flemish-colored General Dutch or French.

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS - The Dutch Language Union is unique in the world; nowhere else do two countries cooperate so closely in a policy area. They have been doing so since 1980, when the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the Language Union Treaty. In it they solemnly declared their joint commitment to spread the Dutch language throughout the world.

AMSTERDAM / BRUSSELS - The official handbook of the Dutch-Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists covers the internationally renowned Story-Based Inquiry method, which is a quick and efficient way to organise and conduct journalistic research. The authors also discuss the social, psychological, legal, financial, ethical and societal aspects of investigative journalism around this method.

BRUSSEL - Onder het gezag van commandant Walter Van Dyck volgen de jonge rekruten van het Belgisch leger een basisopleiding tot militair. Aan de hand van rollenspelen wordt hun toekomst als beroepssoldaat verbeeld.

GHENT - The measures that Flemish universities have taken to lower the threshold for reporting transgressive behaviour are effective at first sight. The number of reports has increased, among others at the University of Ghent, because victims (dare to) report faster. However, that does not mean that all problems are solved.

ARBIL - With Little Survivors Lotte Knaepen and Lisa Matthys made a report in Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). The story is about the Yazidis, a people who were persecuted by ISIS. Many Yazidi children became victims of human trafficking, were separated from their families, used as slaves or trained as child soldiers in Raqqa. In this documentary, the makers follow four little survivors who have suffered trauma in various ways. But the focus is on their resilience, courage and creativity.

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 is no shortage of highly educated women.

SAINT-LOUIS - Talibés are students in Senegal who are sent by their parents to specialized Koranic schools. There, however, they are often beaten by rogue Koran teachers. For their documentary, Arne Gillis, Wouter Elsen and Eneas Mentzel followed talibés at school and on the street and talked to Koran teachers and street workers.

KOBANI - War is not only waged with weapons but also through conflicting ideologies given to children in wartime education. Journalist Pieter Stockmans went to Syria and Turkey and found a struggle for land and values.

BACAU - Georgiana Halmac, the eldest daughter in her family, turns fifteen this winter. She lives with her six siblings in a social housing flat on the outskirts of Bacau, Romania. Her mother Liliana, an economic migrant in Turin, will not return until the summer.

ANTWERP - 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.

GHENT - In the documentary Exit Concentration, Luk Dewulf and Inge Wagemakers shed light on the Flemish educational landscape and give us a glimpse behind the scenes of the much-discussed but little-known concentration schools.

BUSAN - From 29 November to 1 December 2012, the topic of development aid will be high on the international agenda. In Busan, South Korea, more than 2,000 government, multilateral organisation and NGO representatives will work on making development aid more efficient. In an increasingly complex and fast-changing world of emerging powers, financial crises and sweeping austerity measures, the goal in Busan is to establish a new global partnership for development.

BELGIUM - Scientists conduct research on behalf of government and industry. Companies finance chairs and universities derive income from patents on research results. The three-part series 'University for Sale?' examines the relationship between science, government and industry.

KIGALI - After the genocide of 1994, the Rwandan government temporarily suspended history from the school curriculum. The characters in After Years of Walking - children, teachers, genocide killers, students and historians - all find themselves in an uncertain zone between the old history and a new one.