New website Watwat answers 1,000 practical questions

The government of Flanders has launched the new website watwat.be to inform young people about a wealth of different topics. From sex to drugs to religion, no subject is off-limits.

But watwat also addresses less sensitive subjects, with answers to questions like what is ADHD, how do I go about living abroad and how much money do I need to buy a house. Sorted by category, some 1,000 questions that young people – but also pretty much everybody – often have are covered in the site.

There is no registration required to use watwat, but there is an option to tell it your age so it can retrieve the most relevant questions and answers. These are accompanied by personal interviews with young people in Flanders dealing with the same issues.

The site is managed by youth expertise centre De Ambrassade via a contract with the Flemish government. But 70 organisations across Flanders that work with youth in one way or another collaborated on the site, each addressing topics according to their specific expertise. Any user of the site looking for more personal help can find a list of the participating organisations.

“Young people are often stumped about where to go for information about certain kinds of things,” said Sven Gatz (Open VLD), Flemish minister for youth affairs. “The fact is that there is so much information available out there, but it’s not getting to them. By combining our resources, young people can go to just one address.”

Truth be told, the site can be quite helpful for those well above the age of 25 as well, in particular expats who might not know how everything in Flanders or Brussels works. So if you can read Dutch and are looking for info on your right to privacy, why Belgium has so many governments or whether you need travel insurance when going on holiday, you also have one address.