Help seeking, trust and gender-based violence: social connections amongst displaced and non-displaced Yezidi women and men in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq

Abstract

Background Conflict and displacement impact the social fabric of communities through both the disruption of social connections and the erosion of trust. Targeted humanitarian assistance requires understanding the continuing forms of social capital that shape patterns of help seeking in these circumstances. This is especially pertinent with issues such as gender-based violence (GBV) where trust and knowledge of support are major influences on accessing assistance. Methods A novel social mapping methodology was adopted amongst a Yezidi population displaced by ISIS 1 occupation and a neighbouring settled Yezidi population in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in late 2016. Six participatory workshops were conducted to identify available resources. Subsequently, 51 individual interviews were conducted (segmented by gender and settlement status) to identify connectedness to, and trust in, the resources identified with respect to particular issues, including GBV. Results 90% of participants independently reported God as a key source of help in the previous six months, representing the most widely cited resource. Otherwise, familial and community resources were reported for all groups as the most accessed and trusted, with NGO (non-governmental organisation) provision being the least. Women drew more strongly upon familial resources than men ( Χ 2 =5.73, df=1, p=.017). There was an overall trend for reduced trust in resources in relation to the issue of gender-based violence. However, settled Yezidi women were 1.6 times more likely to trust community members and government services and 3.7 times more likely to trust NGOs on this issue than displaced women. Conclusions Mapping of social connections and trust provides valuable insight into the social capital available to support help seeking in populations of humanitarian concern. For these Yezidi populations, family, religious and community resources were the most widely utilised and trusted, although trust predominantly focused in the former two domains with respect to gender-based violence. Lack of trust appeared to be a major barrier to stronger engagement with available NGO provision, particularly amongst displaced women. The role of faith and religious resources for this population is clearly significant, and warrants an explicitly faith-sensitive approach to humanitarian assistance.