Women are almost always excluded from the coverage of war. The media project No Man’s Land – The She Side of the War, aimed to give a voice to women and mothers who work for peace in conflict zones. The project was initiated by three organisations, Moeders voor Vrede (Mothers for Peace), Mama Kivu and Make Mothers Matter. They came together in the platform called Esperas.  Esperas worked closely with Vranckx & de Nomaden, a well-known program on VRT, a national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Community of Belgium.

Competition
The activity consisted of a competition for young journalists and documentary makers, and a social media campaign. The young journalists were asked to make a bid for a documentary about the role of women in conflict areas. Three of the proposals were made into documentaries. The young journalists and documentary producers were trained and coached in the different ways in which women are portrayed in conflict zones. They gained a better understanding on the role of women as important foundations in peace processes.

Unexpected outcome
One of the unexpected positive outcomes of this activity was that Vranckx & de Nomaden changed course due to their involvement in coaching the journalists. Following the project, they showed more attention to the role of strong women in “the global south”, especially through their social media channels. This shows that renowned institutes of journalism – like the public broadcasting companies – can also be open to critically assess their framing.