In June 2023, Culture Resource and Action for Hope launched an emergency initiative to support Sudanese artists and cultural actors and to protect cultural resources in Sudan. Eligible individuals were invited to apply to the initiative’s first component, which supports Sudanese artists and cultural actors to settle in a host city/country. The support is a grant of a fixed sum of €2,000.
By the deadline on 31 July 2023, the program had received 197 applications. Of these, 100 applicants had been internally displaced in Sudan due to the war and 97 had fled abroad.
Two independent three-member juries were formed of Sudanese writers, artists, and cultural and human rights workers. One was tasked with evaluating the applications received from outside Sudan and the other with evaluating those from inside the country.
Based on the jury results, the first component of Stand for Sudanese Artists will provide support for 38 applicants, or 19% of the applications received. Of these, 18 (or 47% of the beneficiaries) are artists and cultural actors who had been displaced inside Sudan and 20 of them (or 53% of the beneficiaries) had migrated abroad.
The artists and cultural actors outside Sudan currently reside in Egypt (29%), Uganda (13%), Kenya (5%), Saudi Arabia (2%) and Tunisia (2%), while those in Sudan had been displaced to the following Sudanese states: Khartoum (28%), Red Sea (17%), Northern State (17%), Kassala (10%), Gezira (10%), River Nile (6%), White Nile (6%), and El-Gadarif (6%).
The gender distribution of the grantees is 75% male and 25% female from outside Sudan and 67% male and 33% female from inside the country. In terms of their artistic and cultural work, they are distributed as follows: 35 (or 92%) of the beneficiaries are writers and artists in performing arts, music, visual arts, and cinema, and 3 (or 8%) are cultural actors involved in cultural management and cultural policies.
Culture Resource and Action for Hope wish for safety for all artists and arts and culture practitioners in Sudan and for the Sudanese people, in general. In keeping with their aspiration to support more Sudanese artists and cultural actors, the two organizations are currently working on preparing the rest of the components of this initiative.
