There are a couple of ideas which I’d like to try and follow through on. Firstly, I went down a rabbit hole after looking into Vitsche, a Berlin-based Ukrainian activism NGO. Their members are very active on social media and film a lot of their protests and outreach in a very cinematic way. I contacted a couple of the primary members on Instagram and have arranged to chat with the women who are the face of the movement. I’d like to learn more about the NGO, but more specifically the individuals who make it successful through influencing on social media. I have many questions, one of which is whether they receive any pushback from Russian representatives. I wonder if they’ve been contacted or warned in any way about the work they’re doing or if their safety is ever at risk. I imagine each of them has very powerful and moving stories, and I’d be interested in profiling one of them as well. This type of reporting would require me to visit their hub and watch them in action in Berlin.
In that same regard, finding and interviewing Russian journalists in Berlin who have either fled Russia or been exiled from it. I want to know how Russian journalists are being persecuted and if they can truly find refuge even once outside Russia. An incredibly pressing question which I have is what the hell is going on in Russia. At the same time, I don’t know how feasible or safe it would be to pursue a story like this, but the prospect of it does intrigue me.
Another potential topic to pursue, which is something that Deb spoke about in class and interested me immensely, is the divorce rates among Ukrainian couples. Ukraine has the biggest number of women in the military, and divorce rates have skyrocketed. As Deb suggests, the men on the front lines are meeting women on the front lines. A way of pursuing this story would be to find a couple who have had this happen to them, and interview them about their story and what the divorce process looked like. Again, I’m unsure how difficult it would be to find a couple who met on the front lines; I don’t know how common it has been for military couples to flee to Berlin. Another topic that we learned in class is that Germans are preparing for a war in 2030. I’d like to speak to people about what this preparation looks like, and what ignited it. Additionally, I’d want to know how widely recognised this is, and if the average person has the same thought in common to prepare for war or if it’s a few minority individuals.
Something which keeps popping up in my news feeds, on my social media and in my email inbox is how Afghan women are currently being oppressed by the Taliban. They pretty much cease to exist; they are barely allowed to breathe in Afghanistan at the moment — it’s so surreal that it’s almost unreal. I cannot believe they haven’t yet been rescued. We learn about what’s happening to them in the media, yet their situation persists. Considering the articles from last week about Germany’s admission schemes being revoked in 2025 and then re-implemented again a year later, I wonder how many Afghan women have been trapped because of this? I wonder if there’s a way to find out? I also wonder if there are any women who made the cut before the programme was revoked but have lost contact with family back home?
This is my initial brainstorm. I imagine that once we land in Berlin and I get talking to people, I’ll receive on-the-ground information or a window into a more refined story. But the above are a few angles I could take; I’ll continue to email and make contact up until we leave.
