A significant number of municipalities in the Rand maintain twinning or sister city relationships with counterparts abroad. How do these relationships come about? And more importantly, how do you maintain the bond between cities and municipalities?

In the realm of elite sports, victory and defeat are two sides of the same coin.

The open-ended environmental permit Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) granted to Brussels Airport Company on March 29, driven by cost-cutting measures, has been greeted almost exclusively with critical to negative reactions.

Het is kanker. Wat nu? is the title of the book written by Tine Maenhout and Silvia Brouwers, as they intimately shared in this experience, offering mutual support along the way. And they wrote the book that they wished they had read when they were in the midst of their periods of illness.

‘Belgium has every reason to be proud of its record on this score, as it is the only country in the world where patient rights, palliative care, and euthanasia are enshrined in law,’ says professor Wim Distelmans.

A full-fledged park manager in Groot-Bijgaarden is on a mission to connect businesses in the area. The business and industrial areas of Groot-Bijgaarden can be divided into three zones: Gosset, Maalbeek, and Industrialaan.

Paying attention is tantamount to an act of love, a sentiment strongly shared by journalist Pascal Verbeken and philosopher Emiliano Acosta. In fact, life offers us the gift of wisdom.

Careful use of space, core consolidation and space for nature and water: these are the guiding principles of the Spatial Policy Plan for Vlaams-Brabant. Rubber-stamped by the Provincial Council in October, after 10 years of preparation, the plan is designed to tackle the many challenges the province will be facing over the next few decades.

A world apart from the capital of Belgium, Petit-Bruxelles is a cluster of farms along a street that bears the name of the hamlet.

The N6 road runs from Brussels through Halle and Mons all the way to Paris, with over 7 km of this route situated in the Vlaamse Rand.

The N2 runs through the most densely populated part of the Flemish Rand, from Brussels to Leuven, Diest and Hasselt and reaches the Dutch border near Maastricht. The roughly 101-kilometre-long road includes a 6.7-kilometre stretch in the Flemish Rand, all of which lies in Zaventem.

You have the freedom to express your thoughts and emotions openly. Frank Focketyn and Jaouad Allloul demonstrate how this form of communication allows people to truly connect with each other.

The need to promote good coexistence is one of the greatest challenges, as municipalities have been increasingly emphasising in recent years.

Ten ‘N roads’ lead to Brussels and cross the Vlaamse Rand. The route we’re taking this time goes along the N3, which runs from Brussels and passes through Leuven, Tienen, Sint-Truiden, and Liège before reaching Germany.

Vilvoorde is one of the pioneers of street art in Flanders, boasting over 50 different works by local, national and international artists. They help to add colour to bare, grey areas, while brightening up the streets and squares.

Four out of five 18 to 30-year-old residents from Grimbergen, Kampenhout, Steenokkerzeel and Zemst say they want to continue living in their municipality, according to a survey carried out by the local authorities in question and Woonwinkel Noord 3Wplus housing consultants.

The area is jam-packed with stories. Not only stories of yesteryear, but also stories from the present day. The region is constantly changing and evolving and always struggling to find itself. We are seeking to discover what being the Rand actually means.

Nearly one in four pre-primary school children attending school in the Flemish Rand do not know enough Dutch to be able to start their first year of compulsory education.

Turning tears into pearls is what Guido Belcanto and Naima Joris manage to achieve with their soulful vocal styles. They offer us comfort and a taste of what the art of living is all about.

An extensive network of bicycling highways is gradually taking shape. The four main routes in our region are: the F3 from Leuven, the F20 via Halle, the F209 from Denderleeuw via Opwijk and the F1 connecting Antwerp to Brussels via Mechelen.

Any time a crisis erupts, Ine Van Wymersch and Alain Remue are on hand to help out. No, they are not made out of steel, they are only flesh and blood, experiencing the same feelings of determination and plagued by the same kinds of doubts as you and me.

If 247 people were to die in a plane crash, it would be breaking news for days on end. Last year, 247 people died and 22.341 were injured in road traffic accidents in Flanders. So many dead and injured seem to be acceptable as an inevitable side-effect of human mobility.

Ten percent of Belgians have no Internet connection at home, a figure rising to 29% for low-income earners.

Ecological and packaging­free shopping is perfectly feasible. Launched two and a half years ago, Fanny Mele’s low­waste shop sells mainly packaging­free organic products from local and Belgian producers. 'I buy…

Alarming is the word observers are using to describe social inequalities in the Flemish Rand’s educational system.