Since the 2021 military coup, the Burma Army has intensified attacks on civilian populations across Burma/Myanmar, driving prolonged and repeated displacement. As a result of these indiscriminate or deliberate attacks, the number of displaced villagers, particularly women and their children, has risen sharply in Burma, from just over 330,000 prior to the 2021 coup, to approximately 3.75 million. Meanwhile, in locally-defined Karen State, this figure has risen from just over 144,000 in early 2022 to well over 1.2 million as of 2026.

Testimonies from displaced women living through armed conflict and repeated human rights violations in Southeast Burma make clear that displacement is not a single event, but an ongoing condition of insecurity. While displacement can sometimes be understood as a strategic movement towards safety, the experiences documented by KHRG reveal a more complex picture of the contradictions of displacement. For many women, fleeing their homes has not led to safety, but to another precarious environment of risk, albeit in a different form. Women described living without a fixed home or reliable access to services, experiencing cyclical or repeated displacement, and making daily decisions shaped by restricted movement and the denial of basic rights, including avoiding movement altogether, even when this limited their ability to meet basic needs.

Drawing on interviews with displaced women in Southeast Burma, this report identifies key patterns in their experiences of displacement. It begins by examining the risks to physical safety arising from conflict-related violence, and how insecurity, movement restrictions, and vulnerability to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) shape women’s ability to navigate daily life, including decreasing or avoiding movement, despite the resulting inability to meet basic needs. It then explores the impacts of displacement on livelihoods and access to basic necessities, including food, water, shelter, and income-generating work, highlighting the additional barriers women face in accessing these resources. The report also considers the effects of displacement on health and access to healthcare, including the challenges posed by damaged healthcare systems, limited medicines, and barriers to reproductive and maternal healthcare. It further examines the psychosocial impacts of prolonged insecurity, including fear, grief, and the breakdown of community life.

The final theme presented is displaced women’s perspectives on the future, including their aspirations for safety, dignity, and the ability to return home, as well as their views on justice, accountability, and the conditions necessary for lasting peace. This section underscores that displaced women are not passive recipients of justice and accountability processes, but active agents whose perspectives should shape them.

This report highlights the importance of centring the perspectives of displaced women in understanding the realities of conflict and displacement in Southeast Burma. While suffering is widespread and affects all communities, examining these experiences through this specific lens provides a more detailed understanding of how harms are lived and sustained in practice, revealing both the challenges unique to displaced women and the ways in which these challenges extend to their families and the broader community. In doing so, the report contributes to a more nuanced account of displacement and highlights the need for responses that are informed by the experiences and priorities of those impacted. It calls on all actors, including governments, civil society organisations, international organisations, and accountability mechanisms, to engage with and respond to these perspectives in efforts to address the ongoing crisis.

To better understand the challenges faced by displaced women in rural Southeast Burma amidst the conflict, KHRG conducted 29 interviews with displaced women during November 2025 to January 2026. These interviews examined the situation of women’s experiences in displacement and the situation of women’s rights as they relate to physical security, livelihoods, healthcare, and overall psychosocial well-being between January 2024 and December 2025 in Karen State. Interviews were semi-structured and followed a preliminary questionnaire prepared by KHRG staff. These interviews were conducted by KHRG field researchers: local community members trained to document issues affecting women in their communities. All participants were informed of the purpose of the research and provided consent for their interviews to be used.

To supplement the analysis, KHRG also reviewed an additional 22 previously documented interviews with local villagers (15 women and seven men), which covered issues affecting displaced women in 2024-2025. KHRG also examined 37 field reports (including incident reports, short updates, and situation updates) produced by community members in 2024 and 2025 on displacement and human rights abuses in their communities. Finally, in May 2026, three additional interviews were conducted with local community-based organisations (CBOs) and service providers operating in the region, including with Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO), Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW), and Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

The history of the Karen people’s struggle for their rights and autonomy is characterised by displacement, both against their will and as an intentional strategy to resist extreme oppression. By and large, this displacement has been caused by the Burma military regime and its pursuit of total power over Burma and its citizens. As long as the military remains in power and without accountability, human rights violations against civilians will continue and displacement will be needed as a strategy for protection and agency for those living in Karen State.

In February 2021, Burma returned to overt military rule when the military seized power in a coup d’état and rebranded once again to the State Administration Council (SAC). This instigated open conflict across the country and, as they did in 1988, protestors from the heartlands once again displaced to ethnic nationality territory to resist the military alongside the Karen National Union (KNU) and other ethnic armed organisations.

For decades, the Burma military has perpetrated widespread rape and other forms of sexual violence, of which women and LGBTQIA+ individuals face increased risk.  Unequal access to livelihoods, coupled with societal expectations of unpaid domestic labour and childbearing, have further decreased women’s resilience to respond to the repeated shocks of displacement.

The history of villagers in Karen State is one of resisting oppression and making a place for themselves despite the constant displacement they have endured.

Since the 2021 coup, communities in Southeast Burma have been increasingly exposed to indiscriminate or even deliberate attacks, mainly committed by the Burma Army, through the use of air strikes, shelling, and ground attacks, which violate villagers’ rights to education and healthcare and cause the destruction of schools, clinics, and religious buildings.  These violations have forced the vast majority of displaced women in Karen State to survive in a high-risk environment where they cannot enjoy their fundamental human rights.

2.1. Risk of attacks during displacement

• Displaced women in Southeast Burma have nowhere completely safe to take refuge, and continuously experience severe security risks, including attacks, as they flee or while living in displacement, requiring them to choose the place with the fewest security risks to take refuge.
• Displaced women are already vulnerable, having lost their homes and possessions – sometimes more than once – and the Burma Army frequently attacks displacement sites or the surrounding areas, leaving displaced women and their dependent children at heightened risk of violation.  At least 20 of the displaced women interviewed had displaced at least two times.

• Over 90% of displaced women interviewed by KHRG expressed that they do not feel safe in the area in which they displaced, with many facing risks of attacks because of aircraft or drones conducting reconnaissance or air strikes, as well as Burma Army operations, fighting, and shelling near displacement areas.

“We can also hear the sound of aircraft. But if the aircraft comes, we run immediately. We no longer dare to stay in our place. Because we are afraid and panic. Whenever we hear the sound of aircraft, we gather our children and run.” – Ma K---, a mother displaced in Mergui-Tavoy District

• The risk of attacks causes displaced women and their families to be reactive to threats and repeatedly displace, and women search for areas with a lower risk of attacks, such as places further removed from active Burma Army operations.

2.2. Security risks related to movement and travel restrictions

• Armed conflict, human rights violations, and political instability have displaced women and girls from their villages in Southeast Burma, broken down social structures, degraded protection systems, elevated economic insecurity, and dramatically increased drug abuse in communities. The combination of these factors has increased risks related to SGBV, particularly for displaced women and girls.
• High levels of landmine and ERW contamination have posed a persistent threat to villagers, with the highest risk being to displaced villagers, who are forced to travel more frequently, such as when they are fleeing, traveling to access food and services, or returning home to check on houses and possessions.
• Burma Army checkpoints are risk zones for arrest, detention, and extortion of villagers. The Burma Army has extensively increased checkpoints and identification checks in their operation area since the 2021 coup. These constraints significantly block rural displaced villagers from primary needs, such as accessing healthcare services, food, and livelihood activities in towns.
• The ongoing risk of Burma Army attacks, including shelling, air strikes, and shoot-on-sight tactics, makes travel inherently dangerous, particularly in KNU-controlled and mixed-control areas, leading many displaced women to restrict their movement.

"I really do not dare to travel currently. I worry that they [Burma Army] will arrest me. [...] I have not even gone to give my little son any vaccinations. People invited me to go with them [to a clinic or hospital elsewhere] but I dare not. I really am afraid to travel." – Daw Y---, displaced in Mergui-Tavoy District

2.3. Displaced women’s agency strategies          

• Despite the decades of armed conflict and devastating human rights violations that they have faced, women choose to remain strong and resilient, even when their vulnerabilities are exacerbated by displacement. Key resilience strategies used by displaced women, particularly mothers, to avoid or alleviate security risks for them, their children, and other community members include proactive community protection measures, keeping children under their care, and community support.

Chapter 3: Livelihood challenges and difficulties accessing basic needs

Displaced women in Southeast Burma have faced challenges in accessing their livelihoods and meeting their basic needs as a result of the ongoing conflict and the associated security risks. This has caused the destruction and disruption of livelihoods, and led to a lack of access to food, water supply, shelter, and humanitarian aid.

3.1. Lack of access to work

• Most displaced women in Southeast Burma rely on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood, so when they lose access to their plantations or rice paddies in displacement, they also lose their livelihoods. About three-quarters of women interviewed mentioned that they are not able to earn enough money to meet their basic needs due to a lack of job opportunities during displacement.
• Several displaced women also mentioned discrimination related to hiring practices, access to work, and equal wages.

 “As for me, I really want to work currently, but nobody hires me because I am a woman.” – Naw L---, displaced in Dooplaya District

• At the same time, with the alterations to the family unit in displacement, women often face a double gendered burden. Not only are women in Karen State traditionally the main caregiver, they also have to do daily labour or other livelihood-related tasks to make ends meet.

3.2. Humanitarian needs tied to displacement amidst ongoing conflict

• Over 80% of women interviewed reported that they face livelihood challenges due to a lack of access to food, water, and personal belongings during displacement. The majority of displaced women are unable to bring food and supplies with them, as they do not have time to prepare prior to fleeing.

“The most difficult thing is, let’s say, we did not get to eat properly. We did not get to live properly. We did not bring anything with us when we fled.” – Naw Ad---, from Doo Tha Htoo District

• Around three-quarters of displaced women interviewed reported that they face challenges in accessing housing and overall poor living conditions, which exacerbate other livelihood difficulties. Most villagers who flee to forests and caves have to sleep on the ground, often with no roof or shelter.
• Although some displaced villagers received aid, many interviewees reported it was insufficient. Based on the interviews with women conducted by KHRG, displaced women who flee to forests and caves rarely receive humanitarian aid due to a higher security risk associated with travel to those types of displacement locations.

3.3. Agency to access livelihood

• About two-thirds of interviewees stated that displaced women have employed different agency strategies to support their livelihood, including sharing food and clothes, borrowing money from others to buy basic needs, and foraging in forests.

Chapter 4: Health and healthcare

The Burma Army’s conduct, including attacks on villagers and infrastructure, have intensified the health challenges faced by displaced women in Southeast Burma, making urgent action to strengthen healthcare delivery essential. Air strikes and shelling have destroyed clinics and hospitals, leaving displaced communities with poor living conditions and limited access to medical care. Illness, medicine shortages, limited healthcare workers, inadequate reproductive services, and the unhygienic living conditions prevalent in displacement sites place women, especially pregnant women, at severe risk of negative health outcomes.

4.1. Negative health outcomes among displaced women

• Displaced villagers who fall ill or face health problems encounter difficulties in managing their health issues and accessing medical treatment, as healthcare is far less accessible in displacement locations.
• Interviews conducted by KHRG highlight that common illnesses among women include malaria, flu, fever, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, headaches, itchy skin, diarrhoea, gastritis, and stomach-aches. These conditions, while often treatable under stable circumstances, become more severe in environments where access to healthcare, clean water, and nutritious food is limited.
• In many displacement sites, particularly those in forests, the overcrowded displacement conditions result in human waste being discarded into streams, further spreading disease and worsening health problems. In addition, in places where people are displaced, poor waste management creates health risks by making infectious diseases spread more easily.
• For most women, managing menstruation while living in displacement sites is extremely challenging. As explained by several interviewees, limited privacy, inadequate sanitation facilities, and lack of access to menstrual supplies make it difficult to maintain hygiene and dignity during their periods.

“Some women face heath issues related to their period. They don’t have a regular period. […] There is one woman. She has a period issue, and she really feels sad about the displacement. She almost died from suffering from period issues and mental issues. […] Although she goes to clinic, the problem is not solved, because there is something wrong with her blood [period].” – Naw L, displaced in Dooplaya District

4.2. Barriers to healthcare access

• Due to the Burma Army’s frequent indiscriminate or deliberate attacks on healthcare facilities, hospitals and clinics have been destroyed and medical workers have been targeted, while other barriers arise in relation to the ongoing conflict and increasing Burma Army militarisation. 
• Limited mobility and the risk of violence from Burma Army soldiers make women more likely to avoid traveling, which in turn disproportionately worsens their health outcomes.
• In displacement settings, the financial constraints of accessing healthcare services weigh more heavily on woman-headed households, which typically have less or no income while displaced. Displaced women, worried about the cost of treatment, report that they are afraid to seek medical care when they face health problems.
• Many interviewees mentioned that people living in displacement areas struggle with insufficient access to medicines as a consequence of limited healthcare facilities.
• Delivering babies while displaced in the forest without critical services provided by healthcare facilities, such as medicine, newborn vaccinations, skilled birth attendants, and hygienic conditions, means that both mothers and newborns face heightened dangers during childbirth.
• For women, it is crucial to receive adequate nutrition during pregnancy. However, as reported by several interviewees, pregnant women who are in displacement locations struggle to secure daily food, making it difficult to obtain the nutrients they need. Likewise, displaced mothers expressed concerns about their babies facing nutritional deficiencies.

4.3. Pathways to meeting essential heath needs

• Local health initiatives such as KDHW and Back Pack Health Work Team (BPHWT) establish clinics and deliver vaccinations. Meanwhile, organisations such as Karen Office for Relief Development (KORD), CIDKP, and KWO provide food and shelter materials. Specialised support is provided to mothers and children, primarily through KWO and KDHW, though at times other organisations or groups also contribute.
• Despite these efforts, support is irregular and often insufficient, due to funding constraints, transportation difficulties, and security-related concerns.

Chapter 5: Psychosocial well-being of women in displacement

In displacement, women are often still exposed to the conflict in addition to the numerous other complex adversities associated with leaving home and are unable to find much reprieve from the constant threat of the Burma Army, exacerbating challenges to their mental health.

5.1. Emotional distress as a result of attacks and displacement

• Throughout interviews conducted with displaced women in Karen State, fear was the most frequently mentioned subject, coming up 206 times across 41 interviews. In all cases, women specifically expressed fear of the Burma Army’s indiscriminate or targeted violence. Nearly 80% of displaced women interviewed stated that they were afraid of the Burma Army’s air strikes and shelling. 
• Women displaced near active fighting areas specifically mention how the sound of fighting triggers a trauma response. With little to no reprieve from the violence, the triggers explained by women flag possible long-term mental health complications, such as posttraumatic stress injury, depression, and anxiety disorders.
• With attacks frequently occurring overnight, many villagers remain hypervigilant and suffer from sleep deprivation, as they are too scared to fall asleep. Over a third of the women interviewed reported that they had difficulties sleeping.
• The Burma Army’s destruction of houses and community buildings was specifically highlighted as a source of sadness by interviewees.
• Following displacement, one of the most prevalent feelings amongst interviewees was sadness related to missing home. Instead of being able to return home, women have often been forced to flee multiple times. These recurrent exposures to violence and repeated cycles of displacement have led to feelings of exhaustion and a persistent absence of security and refuge.
• As a result of the protracted conflict, extensive attacks against villagers, and displacement, several interviewees reported widespread issues of mental health challenges in the community.

5.2. Impact of attacks and displacement on the family unit

• The death or injury of relatives significantly impacts the psychosocial well-being of women and the community at large, resulting in intense feelings of grief and sadness. The loss of a spouse brings forth particularly stressful psychosocial and livelihood challenges as the family’s financial situation is often severely impacted.
• While families who are warned of incoming fighting ahead of time by local leaders sometimes manage to displace together, displacement can often occur under chaotic circumstances in which family members are separated. Interviewees expressed that this results in significant concerns and anxiety, as they do not know how their separated family members are doing.

5.3. Impact on the wider community

• Women shared that when villagers separate from one another in displacement, it leads to strained relationships and actively harms ties to their culture. The division of the community and the loss of support systems reportedly caused sadness and loneliness amongst community members.
• Some women shared that they avoid gathering in large groups and refrain from making any noise because of the high security risks posed by the Burma Army’s propensity to bomb gathering areas. This, then, affects women’s access to community events. A third of interviewees reported that they experienced challenges both attending and facilitating community events out of fear for air strikes and shelling.
• 75% of interviewees shared that they experienced significant challenges in accessing education for children in the community. Despite wanting to send their children to school, multiple women shared that they are often too scared to do so due to the Burma Army’s indiscriminate or deliberate attacks on schools.
• Many women stated that their own lives changed for the worse following displacement, specifying that they, or other women they knew, had to give up education. Multiple interviewees mentioned how the loss of education causes mental health problems for young women.

5.4. Women’s strategies to ameliorate psychosocial distress

• Despite the severe challenges to the psychosocial well-being of women following Burma Army attacks and subsequent displacement, there are multiple agency strategies that women throughout Southeast Burma employ to actively improve their mental health.

• One key strategy is encouragement as a way of alleviating women’s psychosocial suffering. Another important agency strategy specific to women is gathering and sharing their experiences and concerns with one another to find mutual support and, at times, solutions.

 “We just encourage each other. We told each other to stay strong. This is not only one day. This is going to be for a long period. We will continue to hear gunfire as long as peace is not resumed. So, we have to stay strong.” – Naw S, displaced in Taw Oo District

• Some women also gain emotional strength from prayer, studying at bible school, viewing spiritual speeches or monastic teachings online, exercising mindfulness, and spending time with children.

Chapter 6: Perspectives on justice and wishes for the future

• Throughout all interviews conducted with women across Southeast Burma, women expressed their wishes and hopes for the future – wishes for themselves, for their family members, the community, and the country.
• The most prevalent sentiment, expressed by over three-quarters of the women interviewed, was the feeling of missing home and wishing to return and live in peace. The end to the dictatorship is an integral conception of justice reflected across other interviews. Others expressed their wish to see reparations for the harms enacted against them.
• Looking towards the future, women also stated they wanted to see more opportunities for women and advancement of gender equality.
• Finally, many women also expressed the need for Burma military regime leaders to be held accountable for their actions. Some women viewed the international community as having additional responsibility to take action and hold the Burma military regime responsible for its crimes.

“I want to see my family and other families get to live peacefully. Also, I want us to get to travel or work freely. And I want every household to have convenient access to their livelihoods. I just want it like this. I want all of us to have enough rations and get to live peacefully.” – Ma K---, displaced in Mergui-Tavoy District

• Throughout the reporting period of 2024 and 2025, the Burma Army’s escalating attacks have triggered widespread displacement across Karen State, amplifying the severity of human rights violations already faced by women in conflict.
• This report shows the ways in which displacement, often caused by indiscriminate or deliberate attacks, moves women from one environment of risk to another, creating new and compounding challenges, as well as the ways in which women understand their own displacement. Specifically, it examines the ongoing physical security risks triggering and following displacement, the livelihood challenges and associated difficulties in accessing basic needs, the significant and negative repercussions on health and healthcare, and the profound impacts to the psychosocial well-being of women in displacement.
• Reporting indicates that displacement is frequently triggered by Burma Army conduct prohibited under international humanitarian law (IHL), including air strikes, shelling, and other attacks, often resulting in death, injury, and the destruction of homes and other civilian objects. These acts create conditions of insecurity that frequently force civilians to flee their homes in search of safety, while also contributing to ongoing deprivation and vulnerability during displacement.
• The pervasive insecurity arising from Burma Army attacks and related violence has significantly restricted displaced women’s freedom of movement. This restricted mobility contributes to further deprivations of fundamental rights, as women described avoiding travel for essential healthcare, education, livelihood activities, access to food and other necessities, and cultural or communal gatherings due to fear arising from Burma Army conduct.
• The Burma Army’s conduct also raises concerns under international criminal law (ICL) and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• The repeated and widespread nature of Burma Army attacks, and the way they constrained civilian behaviour over time, suggest that the fear experienced by civilians was not merely an unintended by-product of armed conflict but arose from repeated and unpredictable exposure to violence affecting civilian life.
• Still, women continue to demonstrate profound resilience, despite the conditions they face, the harm enacted against them, and their resulting fears, demonstrating their agency by sharing information, strategies, the very limited resources that they have, and encouragement to persist and survive. However, tactics of persistence cannot be understood as an adequate replacement for a dignified life, free from oppression, where rights are fully realised.

“I miss my home and my village. We used to live in peace, with the freedom to do religious events and live in a home full of the sound of cheerful children. We miss our home and miss our village. Our houses are also isolated now. We miss everything about it.” – Naw At---, displaced in Doo Tha Htoo District

Recognising that the ongoing conflict caused by the Burma military regime is the fundamental cause of human rights violations in Karen State, we strongly urge:

ASEAN, other International Governments, and the United Nations to:

• Provide financial, political, and technical support to local actors with local legitimacy – characterised by pre-existing experience, reach, and relationships built on mutual trust – who are already working towards inclusive, democratic governance in Burma that supports human rights, transitional justice, and durable peace.
• Continue to publicly condemn and refrain from any action that will legitimise the military regime’s “government”, including political, diplomatic, and economic engagement. The recent 2025-2026 elections were neither free nor fair and do not represent the will of the people of Burma. Any action taken by the military espoused as a transition to civilian governance is only cosmetic and does not indicate an end to military rule.
• States providing diplomatic backing to the Burma military regime, such as Russia and China, should cease all engagement. These states have enabled impunity by blocking UN Security Council action, normalising legitimacy, and influencing conflict outcomes on the ground that have had a direct negative impact on civilians. States currently refraining from engagement with the military should pressure Russia, China, and others to do the same.  
• Strongly enforce current military sanctions by closing loopholes that the regime and their partners are exploiting and place further sanctions on arms, fuel, and other military equipment to both the Burma Army and those enabling them via these sales.
• Historically, the United Nations has failed to take meaningful action for the people of Burma. To correct this, we urge deeper and more egalitarian partnerships with civil society actors and the people of Burma at large. This requires transparent collaborations in which expertise grounded in local experience is taken seriously and those affected by armed conflict are not patronised as victims. Tangibly, this means public recognition that the military regime is the fundamental problem combined with substantive support for efforts already ongoing by the people of Burma to hold the military to account.
• Support national prosecutors to open universal jurisdiction cases regarding potential crimes against humanity and war crimes that have occurred in Southeast Burma.

The Karen National Union to:

• Address the root causes of SGBV and gender discrimination, including traditional gender perceptions, social stigma, and patriarchal attitudes, by developing and implementing policies that ensure women’s equal participation across all KNU departments, including leadership positions. This will help ensure that women have a role in future transitional justice efforts.
• Uphold all obligations committed to in their 2013 Deed of Commitment Under Geneva Call for the Prohibition of Sexual Violence in Situations of Armed Conflict and Towards the Elimination of Gender Discrimination.

While addressing root causes would relieve the situation, this report also demonstrates ways in which ongoing rights violations are caused by immense humanitarian need, such as violations of the rights to health, livelihoods, education, and an adequate standard of living, among others. Addressing these immediately will relieve unnecessary human suffering and are not fully dependent on lengthy transitional justice processes, so they can and should be addressed now. Therefore, we strongly urge:

The International Humanitarian Community, including UNOCHA, other UN humanitarian agencies, INGOs, and donors, to:

• Partner equally and transparently with local CBOs and CSOs for cross-border aid by providing funding and technical support to address the urgent humanitarian needs shared by villagers. This includes healthcare, especially women’s specific healthcare, psychosocial support, food and non-food items, shelter, and education. Targeted support for people with disabilities is especially urgent as they are increasingly vulnerable to the challenges faced during displacement.
• Advocate with neighbouring countries to keep borders open to informal aid and trade. At this time, we do not recommend formal cross-border aid and trade as this will both legitimise the military regime and increase the risks of aid being diverted to the Burma Army instead of the people affected by crisis.
• Avoid any engagement with the Burma Army and their illegitimate government, even on humanitarian grounds, because decades of experience in the community have demonstrated that humanitarian aid provision via the junta will either not reach the people or will be used as a tool for coercion.

The Karen National Union to:

• Work with local CBOs/CSOs to develop cross-border market access that can support the livelihoods of displaced people.
• Actively seek out additional ways to promote women’s increased involvement in all sectors of work and livelihoods at all decision-making levels, especially within the civil service departments of the KNU. This can be done by providing appropriate capacity-building trainings, recognising women’s contributions, and mandating accommodations to women’s unique needs related to pregnancy, childcare expectations, and security risks.
• Make public as soon as possible the KNU’s gender framework policy so that all women in Kawthoolei are able to access it and provide their feedback. Ensure that it is in alignment with best practices for ending gender discrimination and protecting gender rights as outlined in CEDAW.
• Provide full financial and livelihood support to the family members of KNU civil servants and armed forces in an effort to both prevent future displacement caused by economic strain and reduce hardship caused by current displacement.