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CHAIRPERSON

Dr Celine Coderey, Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu College, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

After the ceasefire agreement between the ethnic armed organizations and the Burmese central government, Eastern Burma/Myanmar has become a place of interest for “health as a bridge for peace”. According to the 2015 Myanmar Demographic Health Survey, around half of the men and women consider that “a husband is justified to beat a women”. In Kayin state, which is the major state in Eastern Burma, 18.2% of women above 15 years old experienced physical violence and 3.2 % experienced sexual violence. In addition, the current UNFPA qualitative survey in Karen state shows that approximately 94% of married and unmarried couples have experienced or witnessed Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) such as verbal abuse and physical violence and that this form of violence is seen as “part of the daily life”. The community based GBV prevention and response pilot project in Eastern Burma was launched in 2009 – 2010 before the ceasefire agreement, by international NGOs, ethnic health organizations and civil society organizations. The project was conceived as a community-base GBV prevention and response model aimed at providing essential integrated healthcare in a conflict/post conflict setting. The different cadres of community health workers are trained to provide basic confidential health services including psychosocial support, ethical reporting, and timely referral channels. This project contributed to highlighting the need for integrated reproductive health services and timely referral pathways.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Seng Aung Sein Myint is a trained medical doctor with public health focus, working in the conflict affected areas of Northern, Western and Eastern Myanmar. He worked with several ethnic health organizations and CSOs, including the Mae Tao Clinic, providing technical assistance on Maternal and Child Health programs in hard to reach and politically unstable areas, with emphasize on improving health information system. He is currently enrolled in the PhD program at Mahidol University, Thailand. His research focus is health system in the conflict areas of Myanmar.

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