With guest Tehmina Kaoosji. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tehmina-kaoosji/ Independent Broadcast Journalist, Partner & Comms Director, TBP Communications & Gender Equity Activist In 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 bu...

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 sil...

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...

With co-host: Dr Hartini Zainudin Millions 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,...

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 pric...

Part 2 of The Human Cost of Scam Centers Guest: Erin West, Founder of Operation Shamrock (https://operationshamrock.org/) Scam centers have become one of the fastest-growing forms of organised crime — but behind the fake accounts and stolen money is a darker reality: people trafficked, tortured, and forced to commit fraud under threat of violence. In this episode, Helen is joined by co-host Mechelle Moore and special guest Erin West — founder of Operation Shamrock — to go beyond the headline...

When the earthquake hit Myanmar, the world briefly looked up — but what it exposed was far more devastating than collapsed buildings. Behind the natural disaster is a man-made crisis: a brutal civil war, forced migration, displacement, and the silent collapse of a nation. In this episode, we go deeper — beyond the quake — to trace the unspoken layers of violence, survival, and political failure in Myanmar. Host Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is joined by Melody Mettlach Crisp, co-founder of Thr5ve a...

Scam centers are flooding headlines — but what’s really going on behind the screens? In this first episode of The Human Trace, Helen Avadiar-Nimbalker is joined by friends and co-thinkers Mechelle Moore and BC Tan to unpack the hidden realities behind scam centers: forced criminality, trafficking, torture, and the growing underground economy built on human suffering. This conversation explores the deeper layers — from recruitment tactics and political complicity, to what happens when survivor...