Supported projects

GHENT - In the region of the port of Ghent, the emission of CO2 and harmful particulate matter is related to the failure of European and international climate standards.

NAIROBI - The idea that electronic waste is carelessly dumped in the remote corners of the globalised world is outdated. Everyone wants to get the materials out of our old computers and televisions, including the EU. Arthur Debruyne and Sam Sermon investigated illegal export, e-waste recycling in Kenya and Belgium, and the built-in obsolescence that gives electro-appliances an ever shorter lifespan.

ANTWERP - In the past year, a few dozen Muslim youths have left Antwerp for Syria to take part in the war there. Why do young people from Antwerp risk their lives in a gruesome war thousands of kilometres away from home? In De Standaard, Janine Meijer examines the motives of Antwerp jihad fighters.

RABAT - Random arrests, assault, raids, deportation to Algeria. The fate of many Sub-Saharan illegal and legal refugees in Morocco. Maithé Franco and Luca Putteman talked to victims and investigated what role Europe plays in this story.

NIVELLES - 17 Raids between 1982 and 1985, 28 dead, more than 40 injured, barely 175,000 euros in loot and no one convicted. The Nivelles Gang is the largest unresolved judicial file in Belgium. Hilde Geens did what someone rarely does: she read the judicial files about the Nivelles Gang and discovered that she was being deceived.

BRUSSELS - Investigative journalist Kristof Clerix (MO*) examined the espionage files of Prague, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Sofia and Warsaw looking for the best Brussels 007 stories from the 70s and 80s. Exceptionally, Belgian State Security and Military Intelligence Service put some authentic material at Clerix’ disposal. Clerix’ new book Spionage. Doelwit Brussel (‘Espionage. Target Brussels’) is a collection of nine true stories and also includes authentic archive documents and photos.

DE HAAN - Irem, Velten and Isabel. Photographer Yann Bertrand made portraits of them for a year in the preventorium in De Haan, at a pivotal moment in their lives. A thirty-year-old with cystic fibrosis, and two obese teenagers.

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.

BRUSSELS - Stories in the media on Scott Manyo or the dutch boy Mauro brought the issue of unaccompanied minors to the attention of the general public. But the boys and girls that end up here all alone, are rarely more than figures in one or the other report.

THE HAGUE - The Dutch philosopher Spinoza is 'in the air', interest in him recently increasing considerably. At the same time, however, The Netherlands seem to turn away from the freedom of expression and tolerance that are championed in his work.

BAGHDAD - 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.

HANOI - Last year's publication of a scientific paper announcing Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier had succeeded in growing an airborne avian influenza virus in his lab in Rotterdam caused a big stir. Though inherently risky, such research was necessary, he argued, because it would teach us which naturally occuring viruses to look out for.

SANTO TOMÁS DE CASTILLA - This is the story of the first ever Belgian colony, namely the one in Guatemala (1843-1856). Both in Belgium and in Guatemala this little piece of history seems to have been collectively forgotten. However, a few interesting encounters teach us that that migration left a lot of tracks.

BRUSSELS - Apache.be’s Tom Cochez spent two years investigating the remarkable relation between Vlaams Belang, its top people and money. Dozens of conversations with people who have been involved with the party since the early days, who were or still are in the heart of the party and who witnessed things with their own eyes, paint an alarming picture of the money machine behind Vlaams Belang and raise one question: why does the party systematically overpay friends in the printing business, sponsors’ companies or organisations of its own party members?

BRUSSELS - How difficult is the balancing act between working on the Flemish labour market and believing in the Islamic god? With that question, Elisabeth Ackaert went to five Muslims living in Belgium.

BRUSSELS - With its large Islamic population, the majority of whom are of Moroccan descent, Brussels has become the capital of Islam in Europe.

RAMALLAH - 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?

DESSEL - It is likely that the Belgian government will give the green light for the final underground disposal of nuclear waste before the end of the year. Cost: several billion euros. The taxpayer pays almost half of that. It remains to be seen whether the largest waste producer Electrabel will pay the rest.

BRUSSELS - One in twelve medical scientists in Flanders admits to fabricating or manipulating data to make it match a hypothesis. Almost six in twelve say they have witnessed such fraudulent practices. They identify high publication pressure as one of the causes.

HERSTAL - Belgian military forces in Mali are at risk of being shot with Belgian weapons and munition that have fallen into the hands of Islamic rebels. The weapons come from Libya but were furnished by previous Belgian governments, material evidence and archive research shows. They have been circulating in the Arab world since the Libyan revolution.

BRUSSELS - Antibiotics have long been a sort of wonder drug that allowed for a significant decrease in mortality from all kinds of infectious diseases. But there is one disadvantage to antibiotics: bacteria develop a resitance for them. In The End of Antibiotics journalist Rinke van den Brink puts these imperceptible bruisers under the microscope. He speaks with scores of international specialists and asks them for possible solutions, because antibiotic resistance is a worldwide problem.

LIMA - Peru is one of the economically fastest growing countries of Latin-America. Still, inequality stays high and social conflicts are raging throughout the country.

CAIRO - Late 2011, early 2012. While people are dying on Tahrir Square, four Belgian photographers go in search of personal stories in a metropolis of 20 million inhabitants where fault lines have suddenly been enlarged. This results in images that you don't see on TV or in the newspaper.

NICOSIA - Since its foundation, the European Union has worked to achieve border integration. Nevertheless, new borders are still being created and existing ones are being strengthened, especially within cities. Now that national borders are more permeable than ever due to globalisation, the strongest conflicts are related to urban space.

NEW YORK CITY - 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."

KINSHASA - Congolese-Australian journalist Eric Mwamba went on a search to find the secret behind the riches of the Congolese elite. Many of his witnesses prefered staying anonymous for fear of their lives – which looks like a kind of Congolese omerta. John Vandaele selected Mwamba’s strongest observations and added some personal touches.

GUANGZHOU - Stringent European migration legislation has shifted traditional African migration circuits towards China. The process of obtaining a European visa is long and tiresome. It can take up to two years without any guarantee of actually acquiring the visa, a Chinese visa takes a day. This led to the formation of African communities in China, such as the Congolese community in the Xiaobei district in the city of Guangzhou.

KIVU - Without fuel our cars will stop moving; it is something we all know and realise. Far less of our attention is aimed at raw materials. Unrightfully so, because without raw materials cars it would not even be possible to make cars. The average car contains about a mile of copper wire, copper that is mainly looked for in Africa.

MOSTAR - Sem Bucman (31) has been living in Belgium for 20 years. He was born in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war in the early 90s tore the city apart. Also the famous bridge was destroyed, as was the house where Sem lived as a child.  All the photos, his memories of his childhood, disappeared.

RABAT - It used to be no more than the curse of acrimonious racists. Today, however, it is an optimistic dream. Increasingly more well-educated Moroccans born in Belgium, children or grandchildren from former migrant workers, decide to build a future in the country that their parents fled from so many years earlier.