Supported projects

BRUSSELS / TEXEL – For centuries, wool kept us warm. Now we no longer want our own sheep’s wool next to our skin. Stiff, stiffer, stiffest: we no longer wear Belgian and Dutch wool as jumpers. At a push, we might use it in our insulation, but even that market is struggling. Is there really nothing left to be done with native, itchy wool?

BRUSSELS / LILONGWE – In September 2025, the Flemish Government abruptly pulled the plug on its bilateral development cooperation with Malawi. For twenty years, Flanders had been investing in agriculture and food security there, but the cooperation fell victim to a round of budget cuts.

CONAKRY / RABAT - Thanks to Chinese investments, the West African nation of Guinea is on track for annual economic growth of 10 percent. But Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah does not want the country to become too dependent on China and is also inviting Europe to invest. Morocco, too, is undergoing rapid transformation. New jobs are being created, but the old inequalities remain.

BRUSSELS - Bias in recruitment and unreliable selection methods remain a persistent problem that affects many job seekers, as journalist Wim Swinnen demonstrates. For Eos and Psyche&Brein, he delved into the way personnel selection is carried out in companies and organisations.

WARSAW / AMSTERDAM / ANTWERP - Europe’s growing labour shortages in sectors like agriculture, logistics, transport, and hospitality are increasingly being filled by a new and highly vulnerable group – migrant workers from Central Asia. Many travel via Poland and end up, through opaque and exploitative channels, in vulnerable situations in the Netherlands and Belgium. 

AMSTERDAM / BRUSSEL / STOCKHOLM - The European approach to legislation on sex work is a complex patchwork of contrasting policies, each of which claims to prioritise the welfare of workers, but often falls short in practice.

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.

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 - Last summer, a fire breather suddenly appeared in Brussels. Photographer Kristof Vadino became intrigued by the mysterious entertainer and started following the man.

NAIROBI - European media regularly report on human rights violations by multinational companies 'from here'. Various Flemish media reported that a Brussels construction company would engage in forced labour in Qatar in preparation for the World Cup. Swedish journalists Tobias Åkerblom and Moa Kärnstrand revealed that a Swedish clothing brand would employ children aged 14 in Myanmar. However, multinationals born and raised in emerging economies are often forgotten.

FALTECINI - Belgian police and army uniforms are made in Romanian factories with Belgian owners, by seamstresses who can barely make a living from their wages. What is wrong with our public tenders? "As long as price remains the most important award criterion, someone always pays the price.

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.

BARCELONA - Some 500 street vendors from Senegal, India and Pakistan work in the streets of Barcelona. Arkasha Keysers talked to them about fake sneakers, bad beer and the fear of a criminal record.

BRUSSELS - Vulnerable Bulgarian women are coming to Belgium and the Netherlands to live with elderly people who prefer to stay at home rather than go to a nursing home. They will care for these elderly people during the last years or months of their lives. This research is a case study of the practices of Seniorcare24, a major provider of these services in the Low Countries, and the fate of the caregivers seconded by this company from Bulgaria.

RABAT - Do we know where the carpet that decorates our living room comes from? In most cases we don't. Let alone that we know what price the carpet weavers are paid for it.

MAPUTO - In poverty-stricken Mozambique, young women are obliged to sell their bodies to wealthier or white men. A general wisdom with cliché status. But is such a simple analysis correct? What does international research say and what do the women themselves think about their sexual practices and social status? 

BEIJING - In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping decided it was time to 'go out'. He launched the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project and wants to develop a train connection across the Eurasian continent and a maritime route into Europe.

BRUSSELS - Flemish women with talent and leadership qualities rarely reach the top. Journalist Tine Maenhout, together with ten inspiring women who hold top positions today, investigates why this is still the case and how things can be improved in the future. 

BRUSSELS - During his training to become a general practitioner, Egmont Ruelens met several bus and tram drivers with stress complaints and physical problems. They flirt with a burn-out. 

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.

CAPE TOWN - The world behind a glass of South-African wine. Emma Lesuis went back to the winery where she made the documentary "Vir 'n glasie wyn" (For a glass of wine) and saw that little had changed. That's why she went looking for solutions and discovered the world of Fairtrade. 

BUDAPEST – An increasing number of Hungarians are moving to other EU countries, with the United Kingdom being the most popular destination. Last year, emigration increased by 46 per cent. Those who leave say that it is very difficult to make ends meet in Hungary, but corruption, new laws restricting freedoms, and the xenophobic political climate also play a role.

MERERANI - In the mines near Mererani in the north of Tanzania, miners search feverishly for tanzanite. Everyone hopes one day to find a beautiful large specimen of the unique gemstone and to become rich in one fell swoop. In recent years the government has taken extra measures to keep as much of the tanzanite yield as possible in their own country.

PHNOM PENH - The jeans or denim jacket that you bought recently have likely been made in Cambodia. A strike of thousands of textile workers was violently suppressed there a year ago. Journalist Ate Hoekstra and photographer Kristof Vadino show that not much has changed since then.

BRUSSELS - "Whoever has a good résumé will find work anyway." This is what Belgian politician Bart De Wever said in the run-up to the elections of May 2014. But is that so? Especially for people over fifty it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a job, no matter how long their CV is.

NOUAKCHOTT - Officially, slavery does no longer exists in Mauritania, a barren desert country in West Africa. However, according to Anti-Slavery International, at least 4% of the Mauritanians are still owned by a master. They are born as slaves and have never known freedom. Not even in their minds.

NEUQUÉN - On the outskirts of Neuquén, at kilometre 7 of the Ruta-7, is the Zanon ceramic tile factory. This is where they do something very special. Ten years ago, Zanon's workers took over their factory. The expropriation was completed in January.

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.

BUCHAREST - When Romania became a member of the European Union in 2007, a transitional measure was voted in Belgium whereby Romanians needed a work permit in order to be able to work. A direct consequence of this was that many Romanians ended up in the informal circuit or were employed under the wrong statute.

GHENT - In 2014 it will be exactly fifty years ago that the first Turkish labour migrants arrived in Ghent to work in the defunct textile factories. Today, more than 20,000 inhabitants of Ghent (about one in twelve) have their roots in Turkey. How Ghent became a small 'Turkey on the Leie' in half a century is the central question in this book about the people behind those numbers.