KAMPALA - Having a child with a disability poses severe challenges to parents, making their lives more difficult. For parents living in a very poor developing country it’s even more challenging.
Do you go to the hospital when you earn less than a dollar a day? How many years can you carry on when your husband left you after giving birth? How many insults can you bear? For some parents it goe too far, and they give up and kill their own child. Some do so by intentionally starving their child, or by not giving essential medicines, while others do so by brutally killing their disabled child.
For lack of a better word in Uganda these murders are called ‘mercy killing’, the word itself suggests taboo. It happens behind closed doors. The parents grant themselves mercy by doing so. After years of frustrations that come with taking care of their disabled child, they give up. They want their life back. We show stories of parents struggling with the efforts and sacrifices related to caring for their disabled child. We tell the story of a disabled child who survived a murder attempt. And we have two shocking confessions of mothers who just gave up and killed their own child.
The documentary was aired on Belgium's Canvas on 17th of February 2018.
In 2019 it was nominated for De Loeps investigative journalism prize. In the category 'Signalerend'.
This project was funded through Journalismfund.eu's Flanders Connects Continents grant programme.
ONLINE
- Kind van de rekening in Oeganda: baby's met beperking riskeren de 'genadedood' (BE) - De Morgen, 11 February 2018
TV
- Mercy Killing - Canvas (Vranckx en de Nomaden), 17 February 2018
- Moeders getuigen over genademoord in Oeganda - 17 February 2018
TRAILER
- Trailer #mercykilling NL - Youtube, 11 February 2018
DOCUMENTARY
- Mercy Killing: Uganda's Hidden Infanticide - Youtube, 27 October 2018
need resources for your own investigative story?
Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.
support independent cross-border investigative journalism
We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.