The second X space of the Andariya series of spaces on the Sudan crisis was held on December 27^th and entitled Grassroots Movements: a look at the various efforts aimed at alleviating the suffering of Sudanese people resulting from the ongoing war. It was hosted by Omnia Shawkat, the co-founder of Andariya, and the key speakers included Dr. Gada Kadoda, an independent researcher and civil activist, who is also a founding member of many humanitarian organizations and initiatives, and Weam Shawqi, a feminist and gender rights activist, with and interest in research and data collection. The third speaker was Muhammad Adam, a humanitarian activist, and a member of the emergency room and the Bahri Youth Initiative.

Here is a summary of the main points drawn from the informative conversation:

Women's networks

• Grassroots organizations, emergency rooms, individuals, and other unregistered groups, have played a great part in ensuring the continued survival of Sudanese communities to date.
• Girls and young ladies can organize through networks that allow them to be quick responders to emergencies, even though they are disorganized.
• Women have managed to create sisterhood and solidarity circles through the networks available to them in different geographical regions, and are working together to address various challenges in the context and environment in which they are currently located.
• In addition to systematic rape, women are exposed to domestic violence during the war, and variable violence of host communities, which results in a lack of acceptance.
• The recent events in Madani are the third battle after the Khartoum and El Geneina. Madani was different because all international and local organizations, grassroots organizations, emergency rooms and various networks were concentrated there. The occupation of Madani has split the nucleus and placed the operational and logistics burden on grassroots groups present in other cities and regions.
• Females in women's support networks have a comprehensive view of the conflict, which is exemplified in the form of solutions they offer. For example, some women inside and outside conflict areas conduct small workshops on topics such as peace, and they also form grassroots funding initiatives to support each other. They also create spaces to share the psychological burden and form self help groups.
• Women in shelters are organizing theaters and programs for children, in addition to teaching skills in handicrafts to generate financial income.
• Activists face movement restrictions, security threats, rape and murder, and are sometimes subjected to unlawful arrests.

Emergency rooms

• Due to the armed conflict, the resistance committees lost their defiance tools leading to their involvement in humanitarian work. As a result, emergency rooms were formed on April 15 to provide social support through central kitchens and hospices, medical supplies, and evacuation of the stranded. Apart from the Bahri Emergency Room, there is also a Bahri Youth Initiative that works to solve the water crisis. A water well has been dug to provide residents with drinking water.
• The presence of the emergency rooms partly alleviated the suffering of the community, but as the war evolved and the circle of conflict expanded, the capacity of emergency rooms was overwhelmed, making it difficult for them to operate effectively. 
• Another obstacle facing the emergency rooms work is the bureaucracy of dealing with organizations that demand that ERs be officially registered, which is impossible considering the context in which they operate.
• There has been gross confusion caused by the emergence of parallel emergency rooms that were established by the authorities, which have no existence or activity on the ground. They promote themselves using the reports and data of the rooms that were established on April 15 to obtain funding.
• Humanitarian aid does not reach emergency rooms for distribution to those eligible. Aid is often reportedly looted by the army or RSF and there have been accusations of it not getting to the right beneficiaries.
• Volunteers in emergency rooms are subjected to abuse and arrest by both warring parties.

Innovative solutions to confront the crisis

• War is not new in Sudan, but the April 15 conflict has different characteristics that make it strange, and dealing with the circumstances is different. For example, the fact that the war broke out and targeted the cities made the process of displacement be reversed towards the peripheries, contrary to the previous situations. The peripheries do not have the absorptive capacity or the resources and facilities necessary to provide for the needs of the large numbers of displaced people. The lack of government structures has led to a near complete collapse of the state.
• The near collapse of the state is one of the reasons for the inability of international relief organizations to respond quickly to the war situation, transferring the burden to individuals and grassroots organizations. From building camps, health centers, and other responses.
• One of the innovative solutions as the war continues is to build flexibility and increase the ability to withstand challenges by networking and strengthening communication between different bodies to exchange ideas, knowledge, lessons learned, and develop work.
• Increasing resilience through appropriate technologies can also work in certain situations, such as biogas for cooking as an alternative to gas, combustion, and firewood. Biogas is generated from food, animal, and human waste to produce gas through fermentation and compression of the waste. This helps in the operation and sustainability of central kitchens, in addition to recycling.
• Another technology that can solve some problems is a sand water filter to purify drinking water. Water bottles are filled with sand and charcoal and water is passed through them to purify it.
• Finally, water bottles and a very small solar energy cell in addition to a small battery can be used to generate electricity that can be used for lighting.
• There are many other technologies related to tracking systems for humanitarian aid and the protection of women that can be found in the following link https://sks-wsr.blogspot.com/