Supported projects

MECHELEN - Youth care center Juneco is a multicultural hub that houses 15 unaccompanied foreign minors aged 12 to 18 in Belgium. The young people grow up here without their families, creating close friendships.

KIGALI - In the run-up to the first world cycling championship on African soil, Aaron Lapeirre travels to Rwanda to document the route.

MATAM - As a nine-year-old girl born with exceptional flexibility, Fanta took her first steps in the Amoukanama circus group, which consisted of boys. Even then, Fanta dreamed of a professional career as an acrobat. However, her family did not approve. Five years later, Fanta still cherishes the same dream and faces the same practical family objections.

AFRICA - New generations always dream big. Daaf Borren travelled through some 16 countries in Africa, fascinated by their stories. From Mali and Congo to Ethiopia and Mauritania: this is an atypical travel book, in which you not only cover many kilometres, but also travel along to the future.

BEIROET / JERUSALEM / DAMASCUS - The ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 had huge consequences: dictators fell, wars followed, the refugee crisis came. Now the Middle East is in a new maelstrom, from Gaza and Lebanon to Syria. Do younger generations see hope alongside misery?

BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan is a country where Russian influence is still very strong. While other global players such as Europe and the West are increasingly vying for influence in the region, conflicting interests can be observed.

OXKUTZCAB - An estimated five million elderly parents in Mexico have been separated from their undocumented children living in the US for decades due to strict border policies, with little hope of being reunited.

CLUJ-NAPOCA / VALENI - As the European Union grows eastward, many children in Eastern Europe are left behind in their home countries while their parents go to Western Europe for better economic opportunities.

SOFIA/BUDAPEST - When people think of adoption, they think of poor countries in the global south. However, Flanders and the Netherlands adopt children from other European countries, such as Bulgaria and Hungary. This cross-border investigation shows that Roma children in these countries are discriminated against and end up in the adoption system due to stigma, poverty and a lack of support for families.

BRUSSELS - Two young people are growing up in a world that is destroying itself. They each seek their own path and test how far they are willing to go in their actions.

OOSTAKKER - November 1967. The police raid the Martens-Sotteau orphanage in Oostakker. Following the report of a social worker, it is suspected that the children there are being abused. Father O., Capuchin and confessor, and the guardian P.J. were arrested.

BRUGGE - In Europe, children sometimes end up in prison. Not because they have done something wrong, but because they are the (unborn) child of a convicted, accused or interned woman. Bruges prison even has a special ward where young children can live with their imprisoned mothers.

BRUSSELS - The photo report gives an insight into cricket, an underexposed sport in Belgium.

UKRAINE - Is there room for healing and recovery in the midst of wartime? With that question, photographer Emiel Petrovitch and writer Johannes Decat traveled to Ukraine. Their answers are contained in a series of articles.

TUNIS - When Tunisians initiated the Arab Spring in 2010, a challenging transition to democracy began. Nearly a decade later, Kais Saied, an independent candidate, came to power. He stealthily implements his political agenda, dissolving parliament, arresting the opposition and targeting the media and electoral commission. Many Tunisians speak of a true coup d'état.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Vila Cruzeiro is one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous slums. People are living in poverty surrounded by a drug war. After far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office, shootings between police and traffickers are much more frequent. Violence in the neighbourhoods is only increasing.

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.

BRUSSELS - Nature and the climate are not doing well and that does something to a person. Increasingly, the psychological impact of the climate and biodiversity crisis is coming to the attention of the public. Young people would be especially sensitive to this, research indicates. MO* organised a panel and asked young people how they felt.

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?

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.

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.

BRUSSELS - In 2013, the Belgian television programme Panorama delved into the world of urban black gangs. The members spoke openly about life and survival on the streets of Brussels. Now, eight years later, they look back on their tough youth. Did they succeed in choosing the right path? Does the past still haunt them?

BRUSSELS - 'Back to Bled' is a contemporary story about the connection between the city and the countryside, starting in multicultural Brussels. The core of the documentary is friction; friction between city and countryside, ecology and economy, healthy versus cheap, connected versus uprooted.

BRUSSELS - How will this pandemic shape the next generation? The middle class is fighting a valiant battle to reconcile family and professional life, but the vulnerable are fighting the same battle with more limited resources.

SANAA - Yemen already suffered from a high rate of birth defects and infant mortality before the war, due in part to intrafamily marriages and lack of family planning, but the hospitals we visited in three different provinces are adamant that there has been an unprecedented increase since the war. 

BRUSSELS - Protests against police are flaring up and are increasingly visible on the streets of Brussels. Among the demonstrators there are strikingly many young people. "We want change, and that only seems possible if we take matters into our own hands," shouts law student Amira (19), who is at the front of the demonstration following the death of Ibrahima Barrie on 13 January.

AUGUSTA - What if you could measure a mother's future dreams for her children against the life that has become? In 1995 the photographer Elisabeth Broekaert travelled to Maine, in the north-east of the United States. Ronnie and Laurie Moulton opened their doors and let her make portraits that were then published in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard.

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.

GHANA - Filmmaker and actor Adams Mensah returns to Ghana, the country where he was born and spent half his life. "Ghana For You" is part of a larger project in which Adams explores the causes that encourage young Ghanaians to emigrate. Starting from his personal life story, he starts looking for possible explanations.