Anna Bowles is a freelance editor working for publishing houses in central London. She holds an MA in Russian Studies from the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. She is also a writer and recently published a YA novel about a girl with bipolar disorder and an attitude.
Anna is also a pro-Ukrainian activist. In late March to April of this year she spent two weeks in East and South Ukraine, with her friends from the Freefilmers NGO, interviewing local people - especially women in rural communities - about their experiences and survival strategies. Anna blogged regularly about her trip and the blog fundraiser supports the people she met.
Anna's blog can be read on her website here: annagoesukraine.wordpress.com/
We have also published extracts on our website here: www.rightsinrussia.org/catego...
Videos by the Freeflimers NGO can be seen on KZread here: / @freefilmers2755
Questions
1. What sparked your interest in Ukraine?
2. Was this your first visit to Ukraine?
3. What motivated you to go this time?
4. Can you tell us where you went? What was your itinerary?
5. To what extent were you in danger?
6. If I’m right, you were travelling with friends from the Freefilmers NGO. Can you tell us a bit about who they are and what they do?
7. What did you do at the places you visited?
8. What were your main impressions?
9. How has Ukrainian society adapted to wartime, on the basis of what you saw?
10. You’ve written a novel about a teenager in the UK. What can you say about the young people you met in Ukraine?
11. What do Ukrainians think about Russians?
12. What sense of Ukraine do you have as a country, and of the way life is organised in Ukraine in terms of society, culture and politics. How is it different from other countries you know?
13. You have been blogging about your trip. If you had to summarise the main message you would like to send to the world about your trip, what would it be?
14. Do you plan to go back?
NB Anna's fundraising is not connected in any way to Rights in Russia.