|
Ukrainian Alumna Organizes Kyiv Protest Against Sex Tourism
September 24, 2008
 |
| Alumna Anna Hutsol | An Interview with Open World Alumna Anna Hutsol
KYIV, UKRAINE – Open World alumna and NGO activist Anna Hutsol took the lead in organizing a July 30 protest in central Kyiv against Ukraine’s growing sex tourism industry. Members and supporters of Hutsol’s women’s organization, FEMEN, staged a “street theater” event and held up placards saying “Ukraine is Not a Bordello” in different languages. The goal of the protesters, mainly female university students, was to encourage the Ukrainian government to take legislative action against sex tourism. The rally was covered byhttp://Reuters.com, the English-language Kyiv Post, and many other media outlets. Hutsol visited Bethlehem, PA, in 2007 on a women as leaders exchange hosted by Northampton Community College and the Academy for Educational Development. Open World recently caught up with the dynamic young activist and asked about her work and Open World’s contribution to it.
Q: Your street protest of July 30 got a lot of media attention in Ukraine and online. Has that translated into more support for FEMEN, in terms of both resources and volunteers or members?
Thanks to Ukrainian and Western media support received during and after July 30, we are invited as experts and able to speak more about sex tourism issues at different events. Two media outlets, one of them the Kyiv Post, and several vocal groups became our partners and offered their support on a regular basis. More members joined the organization. [FEMEN] established a partnership with the Institute of Political, Social and Marketing Research, which helps us do surveys.
Q: What are FEMEN’s next steps in the fight against sex tourism?
We would like to expand a survey that we did on the topic of sex tourism recently, do a demonstration near the Turkish Embassy [In Kyiv] on September 21. A survey done by FEMEN found that Turkish citizens are in the majority in sex tourism tours.
Also we plan to establish a partnership with the Kyiv municipal Committee for Anti-trafficking, which contacted us with a proposal to work together.
We will be following up on letters containing suggestions aimed at combating sex tourism that were sent to the Presidential Administration, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Our main strategy is to lobby for legislation aimed at criminalizing “clients,” making them responsible as well, and to do preventive work among students and foreigners.
Q: What other issues does FEMEN focus on?
As a student organization we are involved in all students’ issues. For example, we had an action in the center of Kyiv against tap water turnoffs at student hostels. Also we work on racism and gender issues.
Q: How did your Open World experience benefit you?
This is the main lesson I have learned in the U.S., while watching the work of American NGOs—never to wait till the problem resolves itself or the government starts solving it; sometimes our government does not even know about existing problems. You should yourself initiate the change and work in the direction that in the end will result in a big change in your country. I also learned that I always should involve media resources in whatever I do—this would help to publicize the organization's activities all over the country and bring the information to the government's attention. Why do I want the government's attention? Because I saw how NGOs cooperate with governmental institutions in the U.S. and I'd like to develop the same in Ukraine. Only with the cooperation of government and NGOs something can be solved.
Q: Which specific professional activities during your Open World exchange were most helpful or inspirational, and why?
The program “Women in Politics” of the White House [Project] NGO in New York was the most inspiring.* I saw that women wanted to change things and how they did that. So I wanted to do the same as well.
Q: What do you see yourself doing 10 years from now? What do you hope to have accomplished by then?
I would like to create a young women’s political party that will differ greatly from other Ukrainian parties by new democratic approaches and strategies.
*Editor’s note: the delegation attended a session of one of the White House Project’s Go Run women’s leadership trainings.
story archive
|
