Help-seeking for Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Study among Internally Displaced Women in Myanmar

Intimate partner violence is a social problem that has attracted the attention of scholars from diverse disciplines. It adversely affects not only physical, psychological and social well-being of women survivors but also children’s welfare and society at large. Consequently, help-seeking becomes vital to reduce negative outcomes from the violence. Limited studies have done on help seeking for intimate partner violence in Kachin State, Myanmar. Therefore, this study intends to fill this gap by exploring women survivor’s help-seeking behaviors in the area. Online interviews were conducted among women who have experienced intimate partner violence and are living in internally displaced camps of Kachin State, Myanmar. Findings showed that informal help-seeking was common, and few sought formal help. Majority of women survivors sought support from informal sources such as family members, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. Only few reached out to formal support organizations. Various micro, meso, and macro-level factors shaped their help-seeking behaviors. Violence severity, knowing on services availability, shame, previous negative experience on seeking support, consideration of the violence as private matter, cultural and religious beliefs, language barrier, and confidentiality issue had substantial impact on support seeking of women survivors. Accordingly, help-seeking for the violence is the intersection of gender, culture, religion and migration. As a result, prevention and response service provision should be done which are culturally inclusive and aligned with the needs of women living in ethnic area.