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:

1. Bonded Labour by Siddarth Kara (https://www.amazon.com/Bonded-Labor-Tackling-System-Slavery/dp/0231158491 )
   
   
2. Annihilation of Caste by Dr B.R. Ambedkar https://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Caste-B-R-Ambedkar/dp/9390492734
   
   
3. These Seats Are Reserved by Abhinav Chandrachud https://www.penguin.co.in/book/this-seat-is-reserved/
   
   
4. SLAVERY IN ANCIENT INDIA Author: DEV RAJ CHANANA https://pphbooks.net/product_info.php/products_id/186
   
   
5. 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=overview
   
   
6. Caste and Religion by A Sivasubramanian (https://www.amazon.in/Caste-Religion-Sivasubramanian/dp/819601712X)

Support the show

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/helenavadiarnimbalker
Learn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.

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 show

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/helenavadiarnimbalker
Learn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.

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, 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 show

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/helenavadiarnimbalker
Learn more at asiafreedomnetwork.org and follow us on Instagram & LinkedIn @asiafreedomnetwork.