ERR Women Response Room (WRR)

Our WRR was initiated from within the Emergency Response Rooms as an act of women solidarity; the need of supporting each other during this crisis. We are working to create a women solidarity network that begins with the women who responded to the humanitarian crisis in our communities. We come together to love, support, improve and enrich our lives and that of our families. We stress women participation, mutual aid, communal trauma healing, self expression and education. We reach out to women on a national level to work together during this war to rebuild our communities. Working together is our act of resistance and solidarity. Currently we have 23 WRR throughout the 7 districts of the capital Khartoum and are connecting with states throughout Sudan.

Mutual Aid:

We support each other on the basis of a  Mutual aid that transforms support beyond charity to solidarity and forms the base for a decolonized localized humanitarian aid. It also empowers the local Sudanese women volunteers and activists preparing them to take a leading role the day after the war. At a time when the sound of the bullets deafen the ears, solidarity and localized mutual aid keeps our sanity and hope alive.

Communal Trauma Healing:

Support the psycho-social and logistical  needs for WRR members and women volunteers in general to be able to continue to do their work. With a concentration on  women volunteers and grassroots activists who choose to stay and work in these difficult situations. How to make them be heard, assure they have the means to work and empower these women in all aspects of life. Trauma healing is essential through the rising level of sexual violence by the soldiers and domestically. The fear driven protection of women further reduces our rights to participate in our society. War makes us suffer through violence and care. We are also aware of the intersectionality of racism and classism that adds pressure on some of our communities. With the increase in ethnic clashing this rises and requires healing and resistances.

Our Methodology:

Our work falls under the following four categories:

1. Psycho-social and Women Empowerment Activities: We support ourselves and other women to deal with war trauma, loss of daily life routines, sexual harassment and domestic violence. We come together in chats and discussion through various activities on the basis of communal healing and mutual aid. This helps our mental health, builds our social capacities, provides us with leadership skills and gives us a voice within our communities. These activities include:

• Organizing Jameia (co-ops) which are local popular women social forms of neighborhood support where women traditionally come together to provide financial and emotional support during social events like weddings and funerals.
• Communal daycare that elevates stress from mothers by giving them space and allows them to interact with each other while helping their  families and community.
• Providing women only community safe spaces to engage in discussion and solidarity. This will enable us to feel safe and take care of each other.
• Capacity building peer to peer skill exchange workshops organized by us for us.

2. Children Trauma Healing Activities: We provide our children with socially playful spaces, encouraging self expression and education through engaging children in games, art, themed talks and discussions that helps them better visually express and share their war experiences, fears, challenges and hopes. Here children learn how to deal with their emotions through group team work, playful social skills activities and events. In addition we provide children's daily meals that supplements their intake of protein and vitamins to prevent malnutrition and provide them the energy to learn, play and grow.

3. Reproductive Health and Maternal Care: In war time, when the economic situation is degrading throughout the society, women's health drops to the bottom of the community priorities. Meanwhile the diseases associated with reproductive health increases among women and girls. This program is to support women and girls' health through providing support for sexual harassment and rape cases both medically and psychologically, reproductive health through provising and advocating for pregnancy checkups and prenatal vitamins, menstrual hygiene and care.

4. Documenting our Experiences and Monitoring Violations of Women Rights: we aim to document our war experiences through writing, audio visual production, arts and support locally sensitive survey and data collection through partnerships with HR organizations.

Our Partnerships:

We are a grassroot organization that is accountable to our community. We do things on our own terms and our own pace to allow organic growth and preserve our political agency. We partner with local and international NGOs on the bases of Do No Harm policies that protect against stress, jealousy, and destructive competition.