MAP Foundation – FreeFrom

About the Organization Contact and Service Areas Successes and Impact Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security Survivor Leadership Understanding Economic Harm in Context

About the Organization

Country

Thailand

Number of survivors served in a year

20 to 50

Languages

Burmese English Shan Thai

Groups most commonly served

Ethnic, religious, or other minorities Refugees, migrants, or internally displaced persons Women Youth, children, or adolescents

Type of organization

Nonprofit or non-governmental organization (NGO)

Program model(s)

Community-based financial initiatives Holistic crisis response Rights-based economic justice Survivor-centered income generation Systemic change through strategic partnerships Transforming social norms through community-building

Contact and Service Areas

Email

map@mapfoundationcm.org, maimaitwe17@gmail.com

Address

9/34 Moo 1 Ing Doi Village Liab Klong Chonprathan Road, T. Chang Phueak, A. Mueang, Chiang Mai 50300 Thailand

Service Area(s)

Thailand (Chiang Mai, Mae Sot, Chonburi, Bangkok metropolitan area, parts of Southern Thailand)

Successes and Impact

“Women’s Exchange is a special place to discuss, to meet, to be happy, to cry together, to share knowledge, and to exchange activities or experiences.”¹

MAP Foundation is transforming Myanmar migrant worker communities across Thailand by championing local women leaders and building robust support networks for survivors. Through leadership development, strategic partnerships, and advocacy efforts, the organization addresses survivors’ immediate needs while pushing for policy reforms that advance structural change.

Growing leaders at the grassroots

MAP Foundation cultivates solidarity and grassroots leadership by developing the skills of emerging women leaders from local Women’s Exchange (WE) gatherings. With guidance and support on leadership skill building, participants gain the knowledge and confidence to organize WE initiatives and support their local communities. There are currently at least seventeen WE groups active across Thailand.

The organization underscores how these efforts have motivated many migrant women workers across the country to take action and drive change: “After we organize WE in an area two or three times, we will see women and young women that have been inspired and who want to lead to organize WE. . . . Also another good thing is that in each area, they don’t stop at just organizing WE—they also look for a new leader to emerge in their area.”

Building stronger support networks for migrant survivors

MAP Foundation has made significant strides in building relationships with government agencies and community organizations, leading to the establishment of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that improve emergency response coordination for survivors. Currently, these SOPs are in place for the Chiang Mai area, with plans to create more SOPs in other regions of the country, namely Phang Nga province.

Additionally, MAP Foundation participates in many international efforts to advocate for migrant women’s rights. The organization collaborates with Global Women’s Strike, an international multiracial grassroots network, to demand government safe house and shelter access for migrant women survivors, as services are currently limited to Thai citizens. MAP Foundation also participates in regional knowledge exchanges across Southeast Asia, raising awareness about the needs of migrant women workers and fostering more connected, effective support systems for survivors. MAP Foundation is also a member of the Asia Pacific Alliance, which promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights and regularly includes migrant women in its advocacy issues. On the global stage, MAP Foundation has participated in the Women in Migration Network (WIMN) to advocate for greater gender sensitivity in the Global Compact for Migration.²

Innovative Solutions for IPV Survivors’ Economic Security

“Programs or projects that support migrant women are very few. . . . Women’s Exchange began around 1999 in Thailand and aimed to create a special space for migrant women to discuss, meet together, and share about their experiences and their knowledge.”

About the Program

MAP Foundation’s Women’s Exchange (WE) program offers a dynamic, community-driven response to gender-based violence (GBV) among Myanmar migrant worker communities across Thailand. The program establishes safe, women-only spaces where participants from a range of labor sectors can share experiences, learn about their legal rights in their preferred language, and form support networks. When violence occurs, MAP Foundation activates the Automatic Response Mechanism, a peer-led system that mobilizes to help survivors access safety and other essential resources.

Beyond emergency response, MAP Foundation tackles structural barriers to economic security and long-term stability for migrant women. The organization equips program participants with practical skills through vocational training in sewing and handicrafts alongside financial education and personal finance management. Additionally, the organization supports collective bargaining efforts and connects participants with legal support to help them confront and challenge exploitative labor conditions often faced by migrant workers in Thailand.

Program Development and Key Strategies

MAP Foundation’s program development emphasizes community solidarity, participant power, and adaptability—ensuring that solutions address the realities faced by migrant women survivors and push for positive change. The organization’s key strategies include:

Mobilizing community-led, survivor-driven initiatives
Tackling economic justice through a rights-based approach
Increasing public understanding of GBV against migrant women

Mobilizing community-led, survivor-driven initiatives

Flexible emergency cash assistance

The WE program integrates cash assistance as a part of their crisis response to intimate partner violence (IPV). Working closely with survivors through Myanmar migrant community groups, WE leaders identify the needs of individual survivors in emergency situations—such as food, medical treatments, hotel accommodations, and transportation—and provide funds to cover those costs.

MAP Foundation highlights that different survivors have different needs, and the funds amount depends on the survivors’ circumstances. “We consider the different situations. . . . Some survivors, we need to support them with more than the 3,000 Thai Baht [about $100 USD] limit under MAP’s policy,” the organization explains. They recall a recent case where a migrant woman was harmed by her husband and needed a number of emergency resources: “We supported her hotel fees, and transportation that will bring her to a safe place, to her relatives. And for the medical treatments, we were able to support [some] of the costs.”

Expanding organizational reach and sustainability through the Training of Trainers model

The Training of Trainers model is a cornerstone of MAP Foundation’s approach, equipping WE participants with comprehensive knowledge on reproductive health, labor rights, domestic violence, and crisis response. These sessions are delivered in the participants’ preferred language and are complemented by training on understanding power dynamics in leadership and collaboration, team building, peer mentorship, and community organizing.

Graduates of the program gain the skills and confidence to lead WE activities in their own communities. This decentralized strategy strengthens local capacity and ensures new leaders emerge—sustaining the program’s impact over time.

Cultivating networks of care and collective action

MAP Foundation bolsters community solidarity by supporting WE leaders in organizing migrant women in their local areas to launch campaigns, events, and emergency response efforts as a group. By building peer networks, the program ensures that participants can rely on one another for localized support while maintaining access to the organization’s guidance and resources when needed. This is important, as government services are often out of reach for migrants due to obstacles such as insensitivity to cultural differences, language barriers, and policies that prohibit migrants from using certain public services.

MAP Foundation recalls one survivor’s story about why she participates in WE programming: “Every time she meets friends, women at the Training of Trainers, or at other WE gatherings, she feels like she has more power and inspiration.” This survivor shared both her sadness and her happiness with other WE participants, mentioning that “we listen and we encourage each other.”

Tackling economic justice through a rights-based approach

A core organizational focus of MAP Foundation is providing migrant workers with information about labor rights, enabling them to address workplace violations and access critical support. Through the WE program, MAP Foundation engages migrant women across sectors, such as construction, agriculture, manufacturing, domestic work, and the service industry.

WE gatherings provide accessible information on key labor protections, including wage laws, social security, and compensation regulations. Participants learn how to respond to issues like wage theft, unsafe conditions, employer threats, and workplace violence. When workers seek to report violations, negotiate with employers, or pursue collective bargaining, MAP Foundation connects them with specialized labor rights programs for tailored advice and assistance, including referrals to legal support as necessary.

Increasing public understanding of GBV against migrant women

The WE program plays an active role in highlighting the impact of IPV and other forms of GBV on migrant women and educating the public on responding to violence. WE participants organize and take part in many public campaigns and initiatives to raise awareness, including:

Campaigns and marches centered around International Women’s Day, International Migrants Day, Stop Violence Against Women Day, and other notable dates
Public events coordinated by migrant women leaders and their networks to engage communities in GBV prevention and response and create opportunities for survivors to access assistance
Spaces for reflection and knowledge-sharing that equip women to address IPV and promote social change in their communities
Community radio programs in Mae Sot and Chiang Mai in different languages spoken by migrants

Survivor Leadership

“Sometimes, survivors don’t even need to communicate or ask for help directly from our organization, because they have friends in the training, and they become a part of networks among WE groups in different areas. . . . They talk to their friends and invite their friends from other areas to come and share. They become a very strong body—they strengthen their network among themselves, among migrant women leaders.”

Survivor leadership is central to MAP Foundation’s work, supporting survivors of IPV in becoming peer mentors, advocates, and leaders in their communities. Their life experiences help inform MAP Foundation’s initiatives and ensure the programming remains relevant and effective in addressing survivors’ needs. This peer-led model supports individual healing while also establishing a sustainable framework for combating IPV and economic insecurity, grounded in community solidarity.

Understanding Economic Harm in Context

MAP Foundation’s work highlights how migrant women survivors from Myanmar face overlapping barriers to economic security shaped by migration challenges, legal precarity, restrictive norms, and systemic discrimination. The following factors influence how these survivors experience economic harm in Thailand:

Migrant women workers from Myanmar face complex social and legal challenges
Social norms impact women’s access to work and their experiences in the workplace

Migrant women workers from Myanmar face complex social and legal challenges

Shifting migration patterns due to political instability and armed conflict

The Thailand-Myanmar border is the largest migration corridor in Southeast Asia, with 1.5 million Myanmar nationals entering Thailand from January 2023 through February 2024.³ Migration from Myanmar to Thailand has increased significantly in recent years, particularly following the escalation in violence that accompanied the 2021 Myanmar military coup.⁴ One in four Myanmar nationals currently living in Thailand arrived after the coup, many without legal documentation.⁵ While economic opportunity remains a key driver of migration, an increasing number of individuals now cite conflict and persecution as reasons for leaving their home country.⁶

Intersecting barriers impact the economic stability of migrant women workers

Migrant women workers face intersecting challenges influenced by gender, legal status, and occupation. Many experience language and cultural barriers and often cannot access legal protections or social services.⁷ As a result, economic stability is dependent upon their employers’ goodwill—placing them at risk of labor exploitation, human trafficking, and sexual abuse.⁸

Social norms impact women’s access to work and their experiences in the workplace

Patriarchal norms and weak legal protections perpetuate workplace sexual harassment

While Thailand has greater visibility and social acceptance of genders beyond the binary compared to that of many other countries, deeply entrenched patriarchal norms continue to damage workplace environments and sustain widespread tolerance of sexual harassment.⁹ This tolerance is also evident in the legal system, where judicial discretion frequently downplays sexual-related offenses, and migrant workers encounter further obstacles to reporting harassment due to fears of deportation.¹⁰

Reflecting these realities, MAP Foundation names sexual harassment in the workplace as a critical concern among their program participants and highlights the need for structural change, including calling for Thailand’s ratification of the International Labor Organization’s Convention No. 190, which is the first international treaty on the right to a workplace free from GBV and harassment.¹¹

Discrimination and stigma create challenges for labor rights, economic stability, and reproductive health

MAP Foundation reports that many factories in Thailand prohibit pregnant women from working, forcing workers to quit if they become pregnant. To avoid losing their jobs, some workers seek abortions. However, despite the legalization of abortion up to the twentieth week of pregnancy in Thailand, practical access to safe abortion services remains severely limited.¹² MAP Foundation points to strong conservative interpretations of Buddhism—which view abortion as a moral transgression that interferes with karma—as a major barrier, contributing to stigma and causing challenges for those seeking support.

Although doctors may refuse to perform abortions for personal reasons, they are supposed to refer patients—yet many do not comply with this mandate.¹³ Financial obstacles further restrict access, as safe abortion services are often unaffordable for low-income individuals.¹⁴ As a result, MAP Foundation notes that many migrant women turn to unsafe abortions, underscoring the intersection of labor discrimination, economic insecurity, and inadequate reproductive healthcare within the organization’s operational context.

Notes

Direct quotes are slightly edited for style and flow.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) was adopted by United Nations members in December 2018. While not legally binding, the GCM is the first broad agreement between governments on designing and implementing policies for a common approach to migration that focuses on migrants’ needs and challenges. See: Paddy Siyana Knudsen, Andrea Bregoli, and Civil Society Action Committee Secretariat, Unpacking the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM), Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, 2025, https://womeninmigration.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/WEB_GCM-Brochure_20250130_ENG-1.pdf.
Women in Migration Network (WIMN), “Points on Gender & Migration for GCM,” December 8, 2016, https://womeninmigration.org/2016/12/key-gender-migration-points-towards-the-global-compact-on-migration/.
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Overview of Myanmar Nationals in Thailand, Bangkok: IOM, April 2024, https://thailand.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1371/files/documents/2024-10/overview-of-myanmar-nationals-in-thailand-october-24.pdf.
IOM, Overview of Myanmar Nationals in Thailand.; Rebecca Ratcliffe, “Myanmar Civil War: A Quick Guide to the Conflict,” The Guardian, January 30, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/31/why-is-myanmar-embroiled-in-conflict.
IOM, Overview of Myanmar Nationals in Thailand.
IOM, Overview of Myanmar Nationals in Thailand.
Boonwara Sumano Chenphuengpawn, “Who is Going to Believe Us?” Work-Related Sexual Harassment in Thailand, With a Focus on Women Migrant Workers, Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO), 2021, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@asia/@ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_830694.pdf.
Boonwara Sumano Chenphuengpawn, “Who is Going to Believe Us?”.
Peter A. Jackson and Narupon Dunagwises, “Review of Studies of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Thailand in Thai and International Academic Publications,” 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344665651_Review_of_Studies_of_Gender_and_Sexual_Diversity_in_Thailand_in_Thai_and_International_Academic_Publications_1; Boonwara Sumano Chenphuengpawn, “Who is Going to Believe Us?”.
Boonwara Sumano Chenphuengpawn, “Who is Going to Believe Us?”.
International Labour Organization, “Violence and Harassment in the World of Work,” Accessed September 11, 2025, https://www.ilo.org/topics-and-sectors/violence-and-harassment-world-work.
Center for Reproductive Rights, “Self-Managed Abortion Landscape in Thailand,” Accessed September 11, 2025, https://reproductiverights.org/self-managed-abortion/thailand/; Nayara Batschke, “Abortion in Thailand: A Legal Right, and Often a Secret,” EFE, February 16, 2023, https://efe.com/en/other-news/2023-02-16/abortion-in-thailand-a-legal-right-and-often-a-secret/#:~:text=(Camera%3A%20NAYARA%20BATSCHKE%2FMARIO,rights%20activist%20for%20three%20decades.
Sarah Newey, “How the Grisly Discovery of a ‘Foetus Mortuary’ Re-Shaped Thailand’s Abortion Laws,” The Telegraph, March 15, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/abortion-laws-buddhist-monks-foetus-mortuary-thailand-asia/.
Nayara Batschke, “Abortion in Thailand.”; Sarah Newey, “‘Foetus Mortuary’ Discovery.”