2018-02-11
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. Mercy Killing is a documentary about parents in Uganda who kill their disabled children out of desperation. The parents of disabled children kill or allow them to die by starving them or denying them medical attention because of the belief that these children are better off dead than having to endure a painful and incurable disability.
The documentary was broadcast on Flemish News Channel, Canvas, where around 250 000 people watched on the first night.
After seeing the documentary, member of the European Parliament Hilde Vautmans was so overwhelmed that she put the problem on the European agenda.
On 15 March 2018, there was a EU- resolution on the matter.
In 2019 it was nominated for De Loeps investigative journalism prize (Belgium/The Netherlands). In the category 'Signalerend'.
Read the full story here.
