Breaking the Pattern: Gender-Based Violence in Public and Private Spaces
With guest Tehmina Kaoosji. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tehmina-kaoosji/Independent Broadcast Journalist, Partner & Comms Director, TBP Communications & Gender Equity ActivistIn this episode of The Human Trace, journalist and gender equity advocate Tehmina Kaoosji joins us for a grounded conversation on gender-based violence, social inequality, and the critical role of media in shaping public perception. With a strong focus on Malaysia, Tehmina unpacks how systemic issues persist but also how younger generations are challenging harmful norms and creating cultural shifts from the inside out. This is a candid, hopeful and informed look at what it takes to move the needle in deeply rooted systems.Support the showPublished by Asia Freedom Network. The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues. Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice. Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
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Layered Injustice: How Caste Sustains Exploitation
With Kamal Raj of Cross Global Asia Foundation This week on The Human Trace, we sit down with Kamal Raj — justice advocate and founder of Cross Global Asia Foundation — to uncover how the caste system, one of the oldest forms of systemic oppression, continues to shape modern-day exploitation.From manual scavenging to bonded labour, Kamal breaks down how caste hierarchies intersect with class, poverty and trafficking vulnerabilities, often hiding in plain sight. This episode explores the silence around caste, the cultural complicity that enables it and the leadership needed to dismantle inherited injustice.If you’ve ever wondered how deeply entrenched social systems drive exploitation and what it takes to challenge them, this conversation is not to be missed.Books referenced by Kamal on the episode:Bonded Labour by Siddarth Kara (https://www.amazon.com/Bonded-Labor-Tackling-System-Slavery/dp/0231158491 )Annihilation of Caste by Dr B.R. Ambedkar https://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Caste-B-R-Ambedkar/dp/9390492734 These Seats Are Reserved by Abhinav Chandrachud https://www.penguin.co.in/book/this-seat-is-reserved/ SLAVERY IN ANCIENT INDIA Author: DEV RAJ CHANANA https://pphbooks.net/product_info.php/products_id/186 Slavery in the Tamil Country By Sundararaj Manickam https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Slavery_in_the_Tamil_Country/09-7lAEACAAJ?hl=en&kptab=overviewCaste and Religion by A Sivasubramanian (https://www.amazon.in/Caste-Religion-Sivasubramanian/dp/819601712X) Support the showPublished by Asia Freedom Network. The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues. Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice. Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
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Migration isn’t the Crisis, Our Systems Are
with Heidy Quah (@heidyquah | Refuge for the Refugees)In this episode of The Human Trace, we speak with a dedicated human rights activist Heidy Quah about the hidden war on refugees and undocumented communities in Malaysia and beyond.We go beyond headlines — into detention centres, into hospitals where legal status dictates access and into the systems that criminalise survival. Heidy breaks down the structural neglect that leaves stateless children without protection, trafficked individuals without justice, and entire families trapped in legal limbo.The crisis isn’t displacement — it’s how we’ve chosen to respond to it.If you've ever wondered what it means to be invisible to a state, or what justice looks like for those excluded from it — this episode asks the hard questions.Support the showPublished by Asia Freedom Network. The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues. Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice. Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
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Legal Invisibility, Structural Neglect and the Children We’re Not Protecting
With co-host: Dr Hartini ZainudinMillions of children around the world are legally invisible — unregistered at birth, excluded from healthcare, education, and protection. In this episode of The Human Trace, child rights advocate Dr. Hartini Zainudin breaks down the systemic failures that leave stateless, undocumented and marginalised children without access to basic survival needs.We examine how legal invisibility, systemic neglect and policy inaction continue to entrench cycles of poverty, malnutrition, and exploitation — particularly among stateless children and those in displacement or conflict-affected settings. Dr. Hartini draws from decades of frontline experience to explain where accountability is breaking down, and why protecting children must be seen as a moral baseline, not a specialised cause.This episode is a clear look at the costs of silence — and a call to confront the systems that keep children invisible.Support the showPublished by Asia Freedom Network. The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues. Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice. Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
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Global Disruption, Local Fallout & The Human Cost of Economic Shifts
With Dr. Lauren Pinkston (@laurenmpinkston | upwardlydependent.com)What starts as a trade policy decision in one country can trigger job losses, migration, and exploitation in another. In this episode of The Human Trace, we unpack how global economic shifts like tariffs, sanctions and conflict quietly destabilise livelihoods and push vulnerable communities closer to harm.From supply chains to scam centers, and from small towns to international systems, we ask:"Who pays the real price when the global economy moves?"Support the showPublished by Asia Freedom Network. The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues. Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice. Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
What happens when we stop scrolling past the headlines — and start listening to the lives behind them?Hosted by Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker, this podcast steps into the stories that don’t always get told — the ones shaping our world from the margins, the frontlines, and the shadows.Each episode is a deep, human conversation about what’s really happening — and why it matters more than we think.Because some stories aren’t just news.They’re personal.And they’re not going away.Because, these are conversations that can't wait.Published by Asia Freedom Network.The Human Trace is produced to spark real conversations, amplify unheard stories, and trace the human impact behind global issues.Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is a trauma specialist, anti-trafficking strategist, and Director of the Asia Freedom Network. She is the founder of The Whispering Willow and CEO of Rise Foundation Asia — two organisations providing trauma-informed, community-based support for survivors of exploitation across Southeast Asia. With over two decades of experience, Helen has supported displaced communities, led survivor care initiatives, advised governments and civil society on systems reform, and shaped regional conversations on human rights, trauma, and justice.Connect: linkedin.com/in/helenavadiarnimbalkerLearn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.
South Africa