Migrant Odyssey

Episode

• Ep.29 Lebanon Lives - Lana: Dealing with the Damage 07.06.2026 57mnt

  Clinical psychologist and GBV case worker talks about her experiences in both psychiatric hospitals and refugee camps, dealing with traumas that - as she puts it- "don't repeat - because they never end." Another episode in the mini series listening to voices from Lebanon. Send us Fan Mail Support the show You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors. Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening bu...
• Ep. 28 Lebanon Lives: There's no time to stay down 24.05.2026 48mnt

  If you want to know a little more about Lebanon than the usual clichés, this is the episode for you. "You have to get back up. There's no time to stay down" This the personal story of Mohammed - why he calls Lebanon his heart's safe space AND "Building the national state prevents violence" This is the story of his work for an extraordinary organization -The Hariri Foundation For Sustainable Human Development. https://hariri-foundation.org/ Sen...
• Ep. 27 Lebanon Lives - The Longing 07.05.2026 1j 3mnt

  Time and distance never quite heal the pain of war and disruption. And neither do they soothe the longing to return. Souad has been away from her beloved Lebanon for 20 years but both its joys and traumas are ever present. In this third episode in the mini series on Lebanon, she talks, - with both bluntness and much humour - about her homeland. Here's the link to a map of Beirut https://www.worldmap1.com/map/beirut-map Send us Fan Mail Support the show You know as w...
• Ep 26. Lebanon Lives - the voice of Areej 21.04.2026 38mnt

  Some people have poetry in their voice - whether they know it or not. Their words, and the silence in-between, stop you in your tracks. Which is what fine poetry does. Areej has that gift. Whether she talks about teaching children, or coming home to her beloved city or her faith, there is always that moment when you have to pause and look at your world anew. This is the second episode in this mini series on extraordinary ordinary people in Lebanon today. ...
• EP. 25 LEBANON LIVES - Mona's Story. 13.04.2026 55mnt

  Lebanon Lives: the first of a mini series featuring extraordinary, ordinary people in Lebanon - trying to live their lives while their towns, villages and cities are bombed around them. As host Stephen Barden says, " These people are us." or as Joan Baez put it, in her song, "There but for fortune - go you or I". Stephen's first guest in this series is Mona - half Ukrainian, half Palestinian, lover of extreme sports and in love with a profession she cannot pursue. And her...
• Ep. 24 Gaza Champions - the generosity of friendship. 05.03.2026 41mnt

  Gaza Champions is a global community that may be solving two huge problems that plague traditional charities: how to make sure support stays long after the media circus has moved on. And how to get past donor fatigue. Stephen Barden talks to co-founders Anam Raheem and Matt Davis about how they helped put volunteers from across the world in touch with individual families in Gaza: a network of pen pals - or zoom pals. And the impact that has had - not just on the families in Gaza - but o...
• Ep 23. The Tiny Mighty Organization: the fight against trafficking in women 25.02.2026 52mnt

  While the media focus on punishing - or protecting - the powerful men who consorted with Jeffrey Epstein, it has completely neglected to ask: how can any man traffic and exploit women and children in plain sight? And why is it that, despite the Epstein revelations, organizations combating trafficking and protecting survivors face more not less governmental delays and significant cuts in funding? In this episode Stephen Barden talks to Taina Bien Aimé, who has dev...
• Ep 22. Gaza Voices 08.12.2025 1j 5mnt

  With Gaza all but obliterated - do the memories and stories of Gazans lie under the rubble as well? If universities, cafes, homes, mosques, churches, hospitals, workplaces and even entire streets have been flattened, what happens to the memories that filled those places? Two organizations have designed ingenious projects to make sure that Gaza voices do not disappear. Stephen Barden talks to Jo Friel and Lina Ayesh from Yalla Labs and Ahmad Jaafil from Waves to Home. l24P71jC2om4S6aAFhh...
• Ep 21. The Children of the Dispossessed: what happens next? 18.11.2025 51mnt

  This is the story of a 6 year old girl who was left to look after her younger brother and sister while her migrant parents worked every day and most of the night. This is the story of Mirujaa, eldest daughter of Sri Lankan refugees whose single minded goal was to succeed in their new country while paying back their families "back home". This is the story of how the burden of the desperate and the dispossessed is passed onto the next generation. And how it is lifted. Send us Fan Mail S...
• EP. 20 Sudan: Ethar, the lemon tree, the meandering donkey and 70 years of war. 19.10.2025 1j 16mnt

  A sandstorm birth, a village donkey named Kajol, and a gun barrel to the head during the Khartoum Massacre—Ethar’s story pulls you straight into Sudan’s living history and insistently asks a hard question: 70 years of warfare has changed nothing, so where does real change begin? We open with a clear, human overview of Sudan’s long arc of coups, civil wars, Darfur’s horrors, and the power struggle between the SAF and RSF, then step into a home where a Ministry of Justice mother and a c...
• EP. 19 Ruchira Gupta: "Where are all the girls?" 29.07.2025 48mnt

  Stephen Barden talks to Ruchira Gupta, lifelong activist against human trafficking - especially the trafficking of women. This extraordinary woman not only founded a global organization to protect and educate sexually trafficked women and their daughters but, through her work with the United Nations, has driven changes in global laws on human trafficking and drawn up rules of behaviour for the peacekeepers themselves. In this episode we hear how she started on her campaign decades...
• EP. 18 Kejsi Hodo and the "invisible" referendum to change Italy's citizenship laws 25.05.2025 44mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Support the show You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors. Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets. That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard. If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps ...
• EP. 17 Lex Takkenberg - 30 years in the most scrutinised of all UN agencies 21.04.2025 54mnt

  From the frontlines of one of the world's most enduring humanitarian crises comes a story of extraordinary dedication. Dr Lex Takkenberg takes us through his extraordinary four-decade journey working with refugees and displaced persons, including thirty years with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). What begins as an academic interest in international law at the University of Amsterdam transforms into a lifelong commitment when Lex joins U...
• EP. 16 All Good Stories Start with our Grandmothers 27.03.2025 54mnt

  Send us Fan Mail Support the show You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big sponsors. Governments are hostile, corporations stay cautious, and even NGOs hang on to their tightening budgets. That's why we need your help. Migrant Odyssey exists — to make sure those voices are still heard. If you’ve ever felt that empathy without action isn’t enough, this is one real way to make a difference. Even a small monthly contribution — one you’ll hardly notice — helps ...
• EP.15 Ahmad's story: from sight to insight 02.03.2025 48mnt

  Ahmad Jaafil shares his story of extraordinary and persistent willpower, He talks matter of factly about his severe and rare eye disease and the horrendous struggle to try and save his sight- in Lebanon and then the USA. If you want to know, in painful detail, what it's like for a family to do everything and more to heal their young son, this episode will do that for you. And it's also a story of - fierce determination and huge will - of a young man who wen...
• EP. 14 One stitch - A World of Meaning 28.01.2025 49mnt

  This is the story of Hajar - a young woman with Palestinian and Lebanese parents - who understands that her people are woven together - not just by ideologies or politics or even the yearning for a safe homeland but by their stories. The stories of their humanity, eccentricities, intimacy and tenderness. Stories that are embroidered into every part of their lives. Send us Fan Mail Support the show You know as well as I do that stories about migrants don’t attract big spon...
• EP. 13 "Our existence as Palestinians challenges a whole universe that supports the occupation" 09.09.2024 45mnt

  Can standing on a rooftop in a refugee camp be the starting point of a journey toward empowerment and change? This episode of "Migrant Odyssey" features Manal, a dedicated social worker and the founder of the Kayani Foundation, that support Palestinian women and girls through the values of family. She takes us through the harrowing history of her family, the struggles of her parents, and the poignant memories of her grandmother, whose stories and a cherished memento profoundly shaped her path...
• EP. 12 Maqluba: the upside down dish that is life on the West Bank 05.06.2024 45mnt

  Life on the West Bank is upside down for Palestinians. They have little of rights on their land that they have lived on for centuries. The towns that they do live in cannot grow because they are being strangled by encroaching Israeli settlements. East Jerusalem, internationally designated as the Palestinian capital - is not. A journey that should take minutes takes hours and hours. The places where the are supposed to be safe - are not. It is, says today's guest Firas, like Maqlu...
• EP. 11 "Even If what stays of Gaza is rubble. The rubble will be my home" 22.05.2024 28mnt

  This episode is extraordinary not just because Tareq - a young man from Gaza - has an extraordinary story to tell, but because as he tells it , one can hear each stage of his life unfiltered. He is able to express what Tareq the child felt long before his adult self understood the years' long blockade -seige- under which his city lived. And when we hear his story of when he first had to go to Jerusalem, we hear the shock of his treatment - as if it were happening...
• EP.10 Rowan from the West Bank: "I lost my sense of fear - and that's scary." 31.03.2024 57mnt

  Imagine navigating the complex layers of survivor's guilt while fostering a beacon of innovation amidst the ricochet of conflict. Join us as we welcome Rowan, a resilient Palestinian businesswoman and engineer from the West Bank, who shares an intimate portrayal of life under occupation. Her vivid narratives reveal the deep cultural and spiritual significance of Ramadan, the ingenuity required to thrive as an entrepreneur in the Middle East, and the unwavering commitment to humanity that defi...