In response to the wide underreporting of gender-based violence (GBV) in the Philippines caused by patriarchal structures and perceptions surrounding sexual violence and victimhood in the country, this study foregrounds the help-seeking behaviors and sense-making of gender-based violence (GBV) victim-survivors and service users of the Lunas Collective chat helpline. Through descriptive statistics derived from 472 observations and content analysis of 235 case summaries, this article examines the demographics and driving factors behind help-seeking behaviors of the helpline's service users. These figures are further contextualized through reflexive thematic analysis of focus group discussions (FGDs) with seven Lunas Collective volunteers who identify as victim-survivors themselves. Through collective storytelling, the volunteers traced the plural and nonlinear paths that victimsurvivors make through fractured social connections, retraumatizing legal procedures, and strained filial relationships resulting from abuse and its attendant harms.
Drawing from feminist care ethics, intersectionality, and affective solidarity, this article explores how victim-survivors seek and create a web of care that centers their own sense-making and agency. We argue that there is no universal standard of wellness against which volunteers and victim-survivors measure themselves to seek and provide care. Rather, they determine for themselves the amount of time and space they can offer, considering their shared but individual journey. This model not only ultimately highlights community-based care to address the isolation brought on by GBV but also encourages victim-survivors to recognize and articulate their experiences as part of structural oppression, instead of individual and isolated abuse. Finally, this study emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals, social groups, and institutions in supporting victim-survivors, highlights the mutability of care responses in meeting their changing needs.